Admit it, we’ve been blessed by the internet:  Fantasy football, ILoveSketch, Piano Cat.  From the University of Singapore comes our latest obsession.  PhotoSketch is a new software that creates photo montages based on compilations of images and a basic sketch that the user submits.  Using keywords and some rough shapes (and what we are assured is a series of magic tricks) the software scours the images for those that match the keywords best, adjusting lighting and features and splicing out the necessary items.   Placing them together over the scene is the last step, from which a montage is the outcome.

Currently available in a downloadable binary test package, the full software — developed by Tao Chen, Ming-Ming Cheng, Ping Tan, Ariel Shamir, and Shi-Min Hu, and which turned heads at Siggraph Asia recently — aims to be web based to allow for maximum searches of images.

While there are still a few hiccups here and there (no shadows under characters, for instance) the algorithm-based software is actually a fairly solid mix of filters, photo splicing tools, and keyword differentiation.

Download the binary here, or tune in to the PhotoSketch development blog to watch the progress.

Images and video courtesy PhotoSketch team