Intelligent Zoom?

What is this "intelligent" zoom that Pentax are putting on their compacts. They say that it doesn't degrade the photos? If it was digital zoom then surely it would degrade the photos. Therefore I ask "what is it and how does it work?" Does anybody know?
CHEERS Vic.

It tells you when your photo is crap, imprints a special watermark on it.

Sorry Doc. I don't understand your answer? Unless you have your tongue in your cheek and are being sarcastic. Please expand.
CHEERS Vic.

Here's an example from the working prototype:

DrOrloff you are wicked .

Vic I read about it too, and have no idea what it means. Maybe they have some clever algorithm for improving the normally rubbish digital zoom.

Cheers Gwyn. I'm sure somebody must know?
Doc, It's "Intelligent" Zoom NOT Intellizoom. I believe they have some big bulls down there in Limousin. I'll have to get one to chase you.
CHEERS Vic.

Vic - my guess would be that when you are taking a landscape shot (for example), the camera "knows" what the subject is intended to be, so rather than focussing on a distant horizon, it chooses to focus on an object situated "middle-ground", and possibly incorporates a degree of DOF to the image....

OR, IT MIGHT BE NOTHING LIKE WHAT I'VE DESCRIBED!!

Update...

Looking at the "blurb" on the Panasonic website (link), the image that refers to intelligent zooming seems to infer that it can pick out your subjects in a field, and "home-in" on them. The British Army calls them snipers, I believe!!

OIS is Optical Image Stabilization, I'd imagine.

Steven. At this point in time your guess is as good as anyones. Maybe someone like Chris at SRS might be able to ask someone at Pentax for an "intelligent" answer?
CHEERS Vic.

steven9761, why are you looking at a Panasonic website to see what Pentax mean by Intelligent Zoom?

That seems as mysterious as the function....

Brilliant, maybe it could speak it too, now we have loudspeakers built in. Then perhaps a Siri style dialogue.

According to this it might be some kind of 'auto-crop'

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/34837445

Hmmm. Not so interesting then.

[quote="Digital Camera Review"]An intriguing feature of the A30 is “intelligent zoom”, which Pentax describes as “an evolved form of digital zoom”. At least one reputable camera shop website says “intelligent zoom” works by “cropping into” the central portion of the CCD sensor image.

In the past, the words “digital zoom” were enough to send most folks in the other direction – digital zooms provide image enlargement but with definite degradation in image quality. The first thing I did with all my P&S cameras was disable the digital zoom. The Pentax “intelligent zoom” does seem to be a different critter with respect to image quality, however.

On the A30, “intelligent zoom” ratios are directly tied to image size – the feature is not available at the 10 megapixel size, but offers 3.6x at 7 megapixels, 4.2x at 5 megapixels, 5.3x at 3 megapixels, etc. If you don’t have need for the A30’s full 10 megapixel sensor capacity, “intelligent zoom” looks like a great way to get some added focal length without the usual image degradation found with digital zoom. (The A30 does have a 5.4x standard digital zoom as well, for those who wish to use it).[/quote]Link to the full review.

it sounds to me like it crops at the sensor then applies an algorithm to to bring the "resolution" back up to 10 mp...