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3D Mars Scenes Recreated From Photos
Hoon Mihn Fao links to this BBC article about Microsoft Research scientists generating 3D models based on pictures beamed back from the Mars rovers. It begins "Using techniques originally applied to paintings, the researchers have written software that works out what flat images would look like from different viewpoints. The result is a navigable 3D model created from one or more pictures snapped by the Mars buggies."
Look there:
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A coworker of mine and I wrote a script to download and generate every possible 3D image from NASA's MER website. It goes through and finds all matching left and right images then makes them into an anaglyph.
If you've got your red/blue glasses you can see them here. We update them with new images every morning. Some of the images are useless but there are also a bunch that NASA never generates for us. They are separated by rover and Sol.
Grandparent said:
Parent said:
Try understanding what you read. :) Making a stereoscopic view from a single image is a step backwards. They're interpolating to "resolve" information that doesn't really exist. It's like when crime dramas zoom in about 10x and then magically clean up the image to see details that were not captured on a security camera! If you want to extract depth, you need two pictures taken from separate locations. Otherwise you're just making educated guesses.
Please don't tell me you honestly think you can tell that w is in front of Y just by processing the picture from camera A (unless you know the exact dimensions of the WXYZ elements). You need the additional information provided by camera B. Consider a picture where you see a tall person and a short building. You might assume the person is standing in front of the building, but what if it's a miniature building in the foreground? Unless you have a 2nd picture, you can't know for sure.
What is non-trivial is generating a stereogram from a single image. In some circumstances only a single image is available and another will never become available. Are you seriously claiming that it's a step backwards to be able to generate a stereogram from a single image?
The research was first applied (AFAIK) to Renaissance oil paintings where, almost by definition, only a single image from a single viewpoint at a single instant in time is available. They managed to produce very convincing 3D models of the scenes and, from them, stereograms.
There are planetary images in existence which are essentially unique. The techniques of Criminisi and Blake allows 3D models and stereograms to be created from those images too.
Paul
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
This sort of thing isn't new. Panorama Tools has PTInterpolate, which given two images of the same scene taken from different viewpoints creates any intermediate view. I've never tried it but this makes me want to.