Enlargement question

[chillman]

Ok, this may sound stupid and naive, but you see in the movies where they have software that enhances images or enlarges sections of an image, and it looks perfect after the "enhancement". Is this just hollywood stuff, or is there software out that does it, only it's available to the govt.? Or, is it just so damn expensive that no one can afford it? Just curious.

\:] \:]

[jonbalza]

Is this just hollywood stuff, or is there software out that does it, only it's available to the govt.?

It's 99% hollywood. There is software out there that will do a decent job of enlarging images, such as Genuine Fractals (and others), but they can't create detail that isn't there, like they do on "CSI."

I have read some info on software that can actually take MULTIPLE frames of video, and extrapolate some amount of detail because different frames will have different parts of the image. But this isn't anywhere near real-time, and needs more than one frame of video to work, not just a single still.

As an aside, computers also cannot create colors based on greyscale information, like I saw on an episode of "Las Vegas" recently.

[Welles]

Well, jonbalza provided the answer to your real question but when it comes to more mundane enlarging image software, I used to use Genuine Fractals until Photoshop's new Image Size algorithms in PS7 which seemed to me to be as good. However a couple of days ago Gare referenced a Photoshop plugin, PhotoZoom, which uses s-spline algorithms and a choice of others. I gave it a test and was so impressed that I'll purchase it.

http://photoshopgurus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6805

(scroll down beyond the chatter and you'll find that I did a comparison of PS, Genuine Fractals and PhotoZoom)

[chillman]

Thank you. Your input is well respected and appreciated.