FotoNation is Awarded Patent for Red-Eye Correction

Latest in a Series of Patents Recognizing FotoNation’s Innovative Digital Imaging Technologies

Fotonation Press Release Summary:
May 19, 2006, Galway, Ireland – FotoNation, Inc. (www.fotonation.com), one of the world’s leading award-winning imaging and connectivity solutions companies for the digital photography industry, announced today that it has been awarded a patent for Red-Eye detection and correction.

FotoNation “Red-Eye Filter Method and Apparatus” Patent

Issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), U.S. patent #7,042,505 for “Red-Eye Filter Method and Apparatus” claims priority as of October 1997. The patent describes the process of red-eye detection and red-eye removal for any digital filmless apparatus and illustrates FotoNation’s offering of red-eye correction technology for devices, such as digital cameras, imaging-equipped cell phones as well as digital printers. The patent is the latest addition to FotoNation’s extensive list of granted and patent-pending applications in the U.S. as well as in Europe and Japan.

About Red-Eye

Red-eye is the sinister-looking red color which eyes often take on when flash is used to photograph people, spoiling otherwise great images. It is caused when the camera’s flash reflects off the capillaries in the retina at the back of the eye. Consumers say that red-eye causes the most disappointment when they view their captured memories. And fear of getting red-eye is the biggest anxiety photographers face when taking pictures. FotoNation solves this problem with innovative in-camera technology that stops red-eye directly in the camera, so software re-touching is not necessary.

“The USPTO has acknowledged FotoNation’s inventive concept of implementing red eye in embedded acquisition systems,” said Eran Steinberg, CEO, FotoNation. “We are presenting this patent to our customers as yet another guarantee of the protection one may have licensing our red-eye technology.”

FotoNation’s in-camera red-eye customers include Kodak, Nikon, Pentax, and others.