Youtube acquires an Irish video enhancement firm

GOOGLE'S VIDEO ARM Youtube has bought an Irish digital video company, Green Parrot Pictures, which claims to improve picture quality and filter noise in uploaded videos.

The company was founded in 2004 by Anil Kokaram, an Associate Professor of Engineering at Trinity College in Dublin. It has developed technology that can improve video quality while also reducing bandwidth and improving playback speed, all of which likely interests Youtube greatly.

Green Parrot Pictures has a small team, but it has received the support of many big name film studios, with its technology being used to improve video quality in films like The Lord of the Rings, X-Men and Spiderman, all of which were very special effects heavy.

The technology allows stabilisation, flicker removal, blotch removal, noise reduction, colour transfer and slow motion, among other forms of video restoration and enhancement. Youtube will want to use this technology to improve the quality of many of its users' videos, which are often shot on low-quality camera phones.

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. µ