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Capturing 3D Surfaces Simply With a Flash Camera

Posted by timothy on from the more-depth-than-I've-got dept.

MojoKid writes with this excerpt from Hot Hardware (linking to a video demonstration): "Creating 3D maps and worlds can be extremely labor intensive and time consuming. Also, the final result might not be all that accurate or realistic. A new technique developed by scientists at The University of Manchester's School of Computer Science and Dolby Canada, however, might make capturing depth and textures for 3D surfaces as simple as shooting two pictures with a digital camera — one with flash and one without. First an image of a surface is captured without flash. The problem is that the different colors of a surface also reflect light differently, making it difficult to determine if the brightness difference is a function of depth or color. By taking a second photo with flash, however, the accurate colors of all visible portions of the surface can be captured. The two captured images essentially become a reflectance map (albedo) and a depth map (height field)."

22 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Amateurs. by bigtallmofo · · Score: 5, Funny
    Creating 3D maps and worlds can be extremely labor intensive and time consuming.

    Bah! I completed my last project in exactly 6 days and used nothing but voice commands. It turned out so well I sat on my couch and ate Cheetos the entire next day. Today, there are over 6 billion users and we're only now starting to run into scalability issues.

    -God

    .

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:Amateurs. by sm62704 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, but look at how bloated your operating systemn is!

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
    2. Re:Amateurs. by clarkkent09 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I hear your support is terrible though. People practically have to beg on their knees to get their problems solved

      --
      Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
    3. Re:Amateurs. by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your project is a case study in bad management, though. Sure, you completed the whole thing in six days, but what are we left with? Documentation that's cryptic at best, and literally billions of bugs.

    4. Re:Amateurs. by ajlitt · · Score: 4, Funny

      And don't get me started on that unhandled divide-by-zero exception!

    5. Re:Amateurs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Gameplay sucks, just one endless grind.

    6. Re:Amateurs. by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

      Obviously, you haven't unlocked the right minigame. It's a short game, but it makes grinding fun.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    7. Re:Amateurs. by famebait · · Score: 4, Funny

      He does at least seem to fix hacking vulnerabilities though. According to accounts there used to be a lot more magic about only a few centuries ago. Or maybe the talent just matured and moved over to the more challenging but reliable fileds of reverse engineering and repurpousing the apparrently intentional features.

      If only similar attention was directed to safety...

      --
      sudo ergo sum
    8. Re:Amateurs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      But the graphics are excellent!

    9. Re:Amateurs. by SlipperHat · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sorry about the docs, but we kicked Satan out of the team when he started getting all arrogant about who's better than who and what not. He's been trying to hack the system ever since.

    10. Re:Amateurs. by Tophe · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's not a bug, it's a FEATURE!

    11. Re:Amateurs. by SlipperHat · · Score: 2, Funny

      Whatever you do, don't unlock marriage. You can't grind anymore, every night you lose all your gold, and you take damage if you make emotes the opposite sex.

    12. Re:Amateurs. by Oxen · · Score: 2, Funny

      And don't get me started on the all of the exploits you left open. Sure, you provided each of us with our own anti-virus system, but if your project had been well thought out there would be no possibility of viruses and worms to begin with.

      --
      First you animate. Then you SUSPEND!!!
    13. Re:Amateurs. by gnick · · Score: 4, Funny

      The divide-by-zero exception is hardly fair. How can he fix a bug that we can't even replicate? As soon as the LHC comes on-line, we can file an official bug report. Until then, let him off the hook.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    14. Re:Amateurs. by gnick · · Score: 2, Funny

      I used to think so too. But once I got my HDTV set up, the resolution on my back yard's just not that impressive.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  2. Flash in a camera? by Skapare · · Score: 1, Funny

    They make a version of Flash for digital cameras? Is it secure?

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    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    1. Re:Flash in a camera? by MBCook · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, but for some odd reason it lacks any kind of image capture support.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  3. Warning: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    TFA requires Flash.

  4. Re:The School of Computer Science and Dolby Canada by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Funny

    What kind of degrees in Dolby Canada do they offer?

    Primarily "Blinding Yourself with Science", with a minor in "Sound and Signal Processing".

    Cheers

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  5. The Small Print by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Caution: Do not use camera, flash or not, around minors, some asians, some tribes of africa and south america, or anyone in the protection of the united states federal government. Use of camera in any of these situations can result in physical harm or jail time.

  6. The differences with having Flash in photos by JoshDM · · Score: 5, Funny

    "shooting two pictures with a digital camera -- one with flash and one without. "

    This difference has already been well-expressed across the internet for years.

  7. Oh, you make it sound so easy... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unfortunately unlocking the minigame can be nearly impossible if you have the wrong arbitrarily-assigned game character. Of course you could modify your character and change your character's gear to make it a little easier, but that's even more work and expense and doesn't make a big difference. There's also a way to pay your way into one minigame session but you'll have to be discreet about it unless you want to start another minigame that involves a lot of not-fun stuff like carefully balancing a slippery bar of soap.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel