Athentech today announced that Apple has approved v1.2 of its Perfectly Clear image correction application for its iPhone / iPod Touch devices. Perfectly Clear iPhone v1.2 allows users to capture and correct images taken with their Apple devices and now save out their corrected images at full resolution (1600x1200 for 3G and 1536x2048 for 3GS) – unless the photos were imported by iTunes, which resizes them. Perfectly Clear assures that the millions of photos being taken by iPhone and iPod users can be optimised for exposure, colour accuracy, sharpness and depth all with a single touch, the company said. This upgrade is available free of charge from the Apple iTunes App Store to anybody who bought an earlier version of the application.  For new purchasers, the price is $2.99.

Athentech Press Release

Growing Athentech Imaging Releases Full-Resolution v1.2 Of Perfectly Clear® Image Correction App for iPhone / iPod Devices

Also Announces List of Newest Licensees, Launches Phase I of New Web Site

CALGARY, Alberta, Canada (13 October, 2009) –– Athentech Imaging Inc., the world’s leading independent developer of automatic image correction solutions, today announced Apple Inc. has approved v1.2 of its Perfectly Clear® image correction application for its iPhone / iPod Touch devices.

Perfectly Clear® iPhone v1.2 allows users to capture and correct images taken with their Apple devices and now save out their corrected images at full resolution (1600x1200 for 3G and 1536x2048 for 3GS) – unless the photos were imported by iTunes, which resizes them.  This upgrade is available free of charge from the Apple iTunes App Store to anybody who bought an earlier version of the application.  For new purchasers, the price is $2.99.

In addition, Athentech Imaging has released a list of its newest licensees – an eclectic assortment of imaging services from all over the world who have chosen Perfectly Clear® for its proven industry-leading capabilities.  The company also recently launched Phase I of its new, content-rich web site as it continues to move forward on a wide variety of fronts that illustrate its continued growth and expanded reach.

Perfectly Clear® iPhone v1.2

Athentech Imaging’s “one click” Perfectly Clear® iPhone application – also available via the Athentech Imaging web site (www.athentech.com) – has fast become one of the most popular paid photography-related apps on Apple’s iTunes App Store.  It assures that the millions of photos being taken by iPhone and iPod users can be optimized for exposure, color accuracy, sharpness and depth all with a single touch, the company said.

Users have been posting their reactions to the new application, and the reviews are very positive.  Here is a representative sample:

“After the 1.2 version, this is the best app out there.  [Other] apps claim to improve dark images in the Apple store, but most don’t do as well as this one.”  — Rvpano

“It took an app like Perfectly Clear to show me that pictures I thought looked pretty good before were actually dull and boring.  One pass through Perfectly Clear brings out the colors and makes my pictures pop.  Kudos to Athentech for such a great app at a reasonable price.”  — Dave in Indiana

“There are many photo editing apps for the iPhone, but none make color/exposure correction as easy as Perfectly Clear – the auto corrections are extremely accurate and resulting photo quality is excellent!”  — geekaren

“Our new version of Perfectly Clear® iPhone successfully overcomes certain compatibility constraints that present themselves when developing any application for Apple’s innovative communications devices,” said Athentech President Brad Malcolm.  “The ability to save in full resolution was the most requested feature from our users, and we’re very pleased to be able to offer it.  Now they can enjoy the best images possible from their iPhones and iPods.”

New Perfectly Clear® Licensees
Meanwhile, Athentech Imaging has recently signed licensing agreements with some of the world’s leading imaging enterprises, who are incorporating the Perfectly Clear® image correction solution that’s appropriate for their operations and extend an already long list of Perfectly Clear® users.  They include:

Photobox, the largest online photo services company in the United Kingdom
Tiny Prints, a fast-growing online picture products company based in the United States
Adorama, the large New York City photo lab and retailer
MonAlbumPhoto, a leading photo album company in France
Happy Foto, the Austrian photo book fulfillment house

The new licensees offered these comments about Perfectly Clear®:

“To further enhance our service, we evaluated a range of image correction and enhancement applications and chose Athentech’s Perfectly Clear® as our preferred supplier, thanks to their speed, outstanding parameter control and quality.”  — James Lawrence-Jones, Deputy Operations Manager, Photobox

“We required a photo correction that works well with our multiple Indigo printers.  We looked at nearly every vendor on the market today, and ended up selecting Perfectly Clear® because of the quality of the enhancements, and of the flexibility and ease of implementation – both which were very important to us.”  — Mak Azadi, Chief Operating Officer, Tiny Prints

“We wanted to work with a flexible company that would continually invent new ideas to satisfy our demanding New York customers.  The better our print quality, the more our customers will print.  After evaluating several different solutions, we determined that Perfectly Clear® was the best.”  — Herman Klein, Director, AdoramaPIX

“We were using another automatic image correction solution, but it didn’t have the flexibility that Perfectly Clear® offers.  We really like the small size of the Perfectly Clear® library, the ease and flexibility of implementation, and the beautiful results of the correction.  We didn’t find this with any other offerings.”  — Pierre-Antoine Bataille, Vice President, MonAlbumPhoto

“As a large hp Indigo user, we wanted a photo enhancement solution that would easily fit into our workflow and provide beautiful looking photos.  We investigated several options, but ended up choosing Perfectly Clear® because the photo quality was superior to all other corrections.  Perfectly Clear® was also very easy to implement into our existing workflow.”  — Alexander Ramml, Quality Control Manager, Happy Foto

“Our multi-patented Perfectly Clear® solution is now represented in every major market and every major imaging technology in the world,” Malcolm said.  “We’re pleased that wherever digital photography is gaining ground and becoming more sophisticated, Perfectly Clear® is in demand.  This elegant solution, which is the smallest ‘auto’ image correction technology available for visually pleasing, error-free, color-accurate pictures, continues to attract the very highest-quality imaging partners – as our newest licensees plainly indicates.  We’re very pleased to have each of them on board.”
Phase I of Web Site is Launched

The growth of Athentech Imaging has prompted the company to initiate an overhaul of its web site, which went public recently with the launch of Phase I.  According to the company, the goal is to provide more information and greater interactivity to a broader range of audiences – from imaging technology developer to picture taker, and from industry analyst to photo retailer.

Within its striking, image-rich new look, the web site is gradually being populated with product information, explanations of the science behind the Perfectly Clear® image correction technology, before-and-after images, testimonials from Perfectly Clear® users about their experiences with the product, and the latest news and developments from Athentech Imaging.  In addition, the web site hosts an imaging “community” for parties who use, or are interested in using, Perfectly Clear®.  Access to complete product and service support also is available via the site.

“A world-class solution used by so many of the world’s top imaging enterprises deserves a world-class web site to provide comprehensive information, deliver the very best support and enhance the overall experience the imaging industry has with us,” Malcolm said.  “We’re well on or way to delivering that site.”

How Perfectly Clear® Works
The inherent problem with cameras of all types is that they optimize image capture for only one object or element in a photograph – meaning that other objects or elements may be improperly exposed.  The human eye sees everything as it actually appears, and Perfectly Clear® “sees” every object in an image similar to the human eye.  Athentech’s ground-breaking image correction algorithms treat each pixel in a digital photograph as if it was captured by its own camera.  So every point in an image is separately optimized for exposure, color accuracy, tint, sharpness, depth of field, noise – even “red eye.”

“Perfectly Clear® was invented for the digital world,” Malcolm said.  “It’s modeled on the physics principles of light.  Traditional analogue-based approaches actually damage true color, create artifacts, and cause clipping.  But Perfectly Clear® essentially operates like the human eye, optimizing and correcting the light in every pixel to perfectly preserve the photographer’s memory.  From the experiences of our customers, we’ve learned that an accurately reproduce image will re-trigger memories far better than an inaccurate correction – which is why we’re unique in our ability to recreate what we call ‘Real Color’ and therefore help drive greater sharing and printing of images.”

About Athentech® Imaging Inc.
Along with its integration into a variety of imaging software products, online fulfillment sites and editing systems, Perfectly Clear® is currently correcting images in more than 50,000 retail photo kiosks, several thousand minilabs, multiple online photo sites and labs, and millions of copies of imaging software in nearly 40 countries.  Perfectly Clear® has become the dominant image correction technology currently in use worldwide, and the de facto industry standard for the imaging industry.

Athentech® Imaging Inc. is an entrepreneurial, privately held company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  The company is involved in three industries and markets:  digital imaging, signal processing (for medical applications), and earth sciences.  For more information, please visit:  http://www.athentech.com.

Your Comments