Dear hackers, I have been asked to contribute an algorithm which re-creates Photoshop's "softer outer glow" effect to an open-source graphics library. The trouble is that it is first necessary to know what the desired effect is! Using only one out of the two controls apparently gives a (poorly implemented?) version of Schoenberg's cardinal B-spline of order 1 (tent filter). It is less immediately obvious what the other control does exactly, though some general properties are apparent.
If someone could tell me the nature of the effect in question, that would be that, but otherwise I had the idea to let the computer do the work and essentially reverse-engineer it via genetic programming. This would require large amounts of memory and CPU time to be effective, on something like a high-performance workstation or computation cluster. My request is, therefore, if anyone is willing to donate access to the appropriate resources, to please let me know. Please n.b.: I double-checked with the author of the image-processing code (VFLib), and he is releasing it under the so-called MIT License, which is apparently OK as far as open source. My point of view is that it is important that the algorithm itself be publically known---algorithms per se are mathematical objects, and as such are automatically free to use without worrying about patents or licenses. Once we figure out what the algorithm in question is, anyone will forever be able to use it in any open-source project. Schoenberg's own work on interpolation via splines was published in 1973, and has innumerable applications today. Thanks for your help! Noam
