Imaging Software Sees All

A software firm called Enoetic has created a program called Photology that can recognize distinct elements within a photo for easier retrieval.

I’ve not seen it in action yet, but according to the company, the software can discover faces, sky, color or the time of day a photo was record. Using a combination of these picture elements, you can search through your photo collection.

Here’s the example the firm used in announcing the software’s availability: Say that you have thousands of digital photos on your computer, and you want to find a shot of your child’s first visit with Santa. Just click on Photology’s “December” and “red” filters to show only the photos taken in December with the color red. If you need to narrow it down more, add the “plants” filter to find the photos with Christmas trees.

The company is currently selling the software only on its Web site for $39.

When you listen to camera vendors — really anyone involved in digital imaging — giving consumers an easier way to sort through the thousands upon thousands of images piling up on their hard drive is one of the defining challenges of the day.