Automatic bleed plugin/filter/action

I'm looking for a tool to automate adding bleed around a selected image. The bleed can be as simple as repeating a pixel away from a selection, at an angle roughly perpendicular to the selection.

For example, say you have a sphere on a white background, with plenty of canvas to add the desired bleed. I'd like a plugin/filter/action that will sample one side of the selected area and repeat the pixel data on the other side of the selection.

Thoughts? Pointers? Ideally, I'd like a commercial product I can just buy, but I'd even be interested making my own, if I can find the resources and get some pointers from people on where I might best start (try scripting? try building it into an action?).

Thanks!

Two days and noone has any input? :\

I don't understand why you don't just start with a large enough Canvas to encompass your bleed? Then output your image through a page-layout program like Indesign.

(Bleed-requirements can vary from the regular 1/8" for press output, to 1/4" for die-cut packaging and the like, right up to 6 inches for billboards.)

He is looking to add bleed to an irregular shape, such as that would be required for diecutting.

As far as I know there is no filter or plugin that will do this.

On the other hand, though I have no clue how to do it, I'm sure somebody could create a plugin for this. If you took the action of select>modify>expand and instead of just expanding the selection, reproduced the pixels on the edge of the selection radially, perhaps with some type of dithering to break up the radial streaks...

As for now it is a strictly manual process of cloning color out past the diecut edge, changing source and destination often. It's not easy.