(Thanks to Uri) Israelis Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir have invented “seam-carving” also known as re-targeting. You can now reduce or enlarge the width of a photo without changing its height or distorting the content. It helps the easy transfer of images to mobile phone screens, for example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NcIJXTlugc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seam_carving