NATIONAL INNOFINLAND PRIZE 2005

SoftColor Oy, Joensuu: Real-time colour correction method for digital photography

SoftColor Oy Ltd has introduced an internationally unique real-time colour correction method, which in digital photography utilises the opportunities provided by modern optics and colour research.

The basis of the innovation is to merge an exact illumination information, i.e. information about the spectral distribution, with traditional error correction. The result is a technology which exactly, at the moment of taking a photo, observes the surrounding illumination and corrects the quality and colour of a photo taken with a mobile camera phone to the level that can be reached with a high-quality digital camera.

SoftColor's automatic colour correction technology, which is based on adjustment of illumination, can easily be installed in the actual camera phones. An affordable software, which is downloadable from the Internet, has been developed on the basis of the application for the current requirements in camera phones. Besides, SoftColor offers apparatus manufacturers a sensor to be integrated in future camera phones.

The application can be used in all kinds of modern apparatuses which process colour in digital form, such as mobile phones, cameras, television cameras, web cameras, video cameras, and in colour calibration processes within the film industry.

A patent is pending for the SoftColor technology, and Tekes and the Foundation for Inventions finance the company. SoftColor Oy Ltd has its premises at Joensuu Science Park. The company cooperates both internationally and locally with other enterprises in the branch.

SoftColor Oy Ltd, Länsikatu 15, FI-80110 Joensuu
Managing Director Petri Piirainen
Tel. +358 (0)41 466 8923
petri.piirainen@softcolor.fi

Board Chairman Juha Purmonen
Tel. +358 (0)50 555 9259
juha.purmonen@softcolor.fi
www.softcolor.fi