Sharpen

Sharpen is an Eclipse plug-in useful for multiplatform code development, having the ability to convert from one language to another. Sharpen can convert Java to C# and vice versa. It can be used also to develop Java code with the most recent JDK, as Sharpen can convert between the Java dialects.

If the converted code does not run properly, the user has to remove parts that does not compile, but a better way is to modify methods that do not compile to do their calls by reflection. This would avoid hard links to functionality that does not exist.

It is desirable that Sharpen creates a Java source code version of the backport, to allow debugging on the respective platforms.

Benefits

Unsharp masking

Unsharp masking (USM) is an image sharpening technique, often available in digital image processing software.

The "unsharp" of the name derives from the fact that the technique uses a blurred, or "unsharp", negative image to create a mask of the original image. The unsharped mask is then combined with the positive (original) image, creating an image that is less blurry than the original. The resulting image, although clearer, may be a less accurate representation of the image's subject. In the context of signal processing, an unsharp mask is generally a linear or nonlinear filter that amplifies the high-frequency components of a signal.

Photographic unsharp masking

The technique was first used in Germany during the 1930s as a way of increasing the acutance, or apparent resolution, of photographic images.

For the photographic process, a large-format glass plate negative is contact-copied onto a low contrast film or plate to create a positive image. However, the positive copy is made with the copy material in contact with the back of the original, rather than emulsion-to-emulsion, so it is blurred. After processing this blurred positive is replaced in contact with the back of the original negative. When light is passed through both negative and in-register positive (in an enlarger for example), the positive partially cancels some of the information in the negative.