Video with Depth

Lifewolf writes: "A new technology from 3DV Systems uses pulsed infrared illumination to capture depth information for every pixel of a video stream. This allows for neat tricks like realtime keying without need for color backgrounds. JVC is already selling a product based on this, the ZCAM."

Comments

This will revolutionize color keying.

[arsaspe]

Normally, when you want to key in a false background in a scene, you need to have a constant color in the background (Hence the use of blue and green screens). If the background isn't flat, then you either have to go at it with photoshop frame by frame, or use expensive border tracking software which is less than perfect. You could spend hours setting up a scene just right, with screens placed in all the right places, making sure that there is nothing else that is the same color as the key, and planning camera angles for an action sequence, not to mention the struggle of getting the keying to work just right.

with this new technology, however, you could film an actor just about anywhere with very little preperation, and key him/her out based on depth AND color (some situations may need both), and easily pop new things both in front and behind the actor. It could save movie studios a lot of time, effort, and money for doing special effects, especially after you consider how easily it would be to generate a virtual stunt double from the 3d mesh (film the actor from a few angles, and merge the resulting 3d wireframe. Voila, perfect model down to the wrinkles in the skin)

Re:Twofold problem

[evilviper]

Like I said, there is no problem recording the image in 3D. The problem seems to be playing it back to an audience easially.

The brain superpose a correction on what we see. Object it recognize it doesn't see them as "flat" even if seen with only one eye. It automatically add depth.

True, but what most people don't realize is that we see just as much depth in a TV screen, as we would in real life if we covered one eye.

Speaking of complex problems... There are certain devices that, when placed over your eyes, will essentially trick your eyes into seeing the depth on a flat screen, so there is quite a lot of information saved on a 2D image. The strange thing is that computer generated images are still seen as flat, while the rest has depth. What is different in the two is a mystery, but it just goes to show that our minds are privy to much more information than we are consciously aware of. (Have you ever seen a movie which used special effects and it just didn't seem right, even through you couldn't point out any real problem?)

Forger's wonder tool

[BlueUnderwear]

...admissable evidence that helps the court...

IMHO, this technology would rather do the contrary. It makes photo forgeries so damn easy: no afternoon-long sessions with the gimp to get exact contours of people to delete from or insert into picutres: just use the ZCAM's distance keying and you get instant masks. The example given was scary: a business meeting, from which they could edit out people at will. The ideal tool for anybody that wants to rewrite history. So, forget about photos staying admissible as evidence in court.