Digital cameras that remove red eye caused by a flash are now common. But what about removing the glow-eye that appears in flash photography of dogs and cats, the second most-photographed subjects after children? Hewlett-Packard’s new R837 digital camera does just that.
Light can reflect differently on animals’ retinas than it does on human retinas, creating an eerie glow. As in removing human red eye, software in the camera detects the glow and replaces it with a remarkably lifelike black dot.
Hewlett-Packard has also added software that removes blemishes and smoothes wrinkles in photographs of humans.
The 7.2-megapixel camera, with a 3X optical zoom lens and a three-inch image display, will go on sale next month for $230.
In addition to replacing glowing pupils, the camera finds the eyes’ focal points and adds a tiny white dot, indicating the direction the pet is looking. Alas, if a picture is shot in a dark room and the glow is extreme, the retouching does not work well. The pet ends up looking like a bug-eyed marmoset.