The problem with being a tourist is that by the time you’ve reached your sightseeing destination, every other tourist is there too. Not exactly great for vacation photos.
Short of removing the crowds, Adobe’s hoping to do the next best thing—removing them from your shots. This week, the company showed off at its Max conference an algorithm that can remove annoying tourists from photographs.
Though Adobe didn’t spend much time explaining how this feature, called Monument Mode, works, it appears its algorithm can detect stationary (the Eiffel Tower, for example) and moving objects (tourists) in real time, removing the latter from the shot.
Here’s actor Nick Offerman (of Parks and Recreation TV show fame) and Adobe community manager Kim Chambers demonstrating the feature (in an incredibly awkward five minutes):
Adobe often uses its conference to preview new technologies that could be integrated into its products. Given how Monument Mode removes objects from a photo before it’s captured, it’s most likely destined for a mobile app, though there are no guarantees when, or if, it’ll ever be available to consumers. In the meanwhile, there’s Photoshop.