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The Nonphotorealistic Camera

Posted by timothy on from the cleverness-applied dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This article on Photo.Net describes a new type of imaging technique that finds depth discontinuities in real-world scenes with multiple flashes added to ordinary digital cameras. As depth discontinuities correspond to real 3D object boundaries, the resulting images look like line drawings. The same technique was used at this year's SIGGRAPH to create a live A-ha 'Take On Me' demo."

6 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Demo Video by HogynCymraeg · · Score: 5, Informative

    Is here

  2. Since the site by lachlan76 · · Score: 3, Informative

    has slowed to a crawl, Here's the cache.

  3. Re:Very interesting, but stupid by thesp · · Score: 5, Informative

    You are mistaken. The final image is the 'equivalent' photoshop filter, and it's showing what a poor job it does in contrast to the third image, a good image, from the multiflash.

  4. Re:3D Modelling Applications? by Stween · · Score: 3, Informative

    3D cameras do exist ... though the one that I saw was a fairly substantial beast. About the size of a phone booth, you stand in the middle and well-calibrated cameras all around you take pictures, generating a 3D model of whatever's in there.

    It was strange seeing a surprisingly high resolution 3D model of me on screen seconds after I'd stepped out of the thing.

  5. Phase congruency by TeknoHog · · Score: 4, Informative

    The depth edge maps bear a superficial resemblance to phase congruency maps. It's the best edge detection method I've come across, and works on ordinary 2D images. Check out some examples on Peter Kovesi's pages, there's also some code for download.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  6. geek speculation is way off here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    For those that are uneducated in graphics, the engine photos show two comparative methods:

    The TOP row shows how the camera output is good enough to be used as a technical drawing- it requires very little modification or touch-up.

    The BOTTOM row shows how a Photoshop filters butcher the image and the result is completely useless. No amount of touch up could help that image.

    Furthermore... NO THIS CAMERA CANNOT BE USED ON MONOCHROME IMAGES. It can't be used on any kind of images, and it isn't a post-filter. There isn't any edge detection involved.

    The 4 flashes cause shadows to be cast in 4 different directions and creates a composite from the difference. If the subject DOESN'T cast a shadow, then the camera won't work.

    I assume this camera cannot be used to photograph the outdoor scenes, simply because the flashes will not render shadows at that great distance.

    This is an brilliant method though, and the results are excellent (look at how the details in the spine pop out).