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Erasing Objects From Video In Real Time

Posted by timothy on from the no-more-wires-visible dept.

Smoothly interpolating away objects in still pictures is impressive enough, but reader geoffbrecker writes with a stunning demonstration from Germany's Technical University of Ilmenau of on-the-fly erasure of selected objects in video. Quoting: "The effect is achieved by an image synthesizer that reduces the image quality, removes the object, and then increases the image quality back up. This all happens within 40 milliseconds, fast enough that the viewer doesn't notice any delay."

14 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Perfect Application by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We need this built into our televisions to automagically remove those network logo "bugs" and other crap they have started putting on the screen during the shows.

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    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    1. Re:Perfect Application by leuk_he · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In reality the networks wil use it to blur out any logo's from companys that do not sponsor the show. F1 cars will be red instead of filled with sponsors.

    2. Re:Perfect Application by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Interesting

      A simpler version of this has already been used to edit billboards visible in broadcasts of baseball games.

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      Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
    3. Re:Perfect Application by sjames · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Or stripping out the thousands of peaceful middle aged protesters and the hundreds of uninvolved pedestrians being tear gassed to show only the one or two violent people who actually have nothing to do with the protest.

      Next up, witnesses will disappear from police video to discredit them in court.

  2. Cool, but probably still has a ways to go. by suso · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Pretty good, but take note that all the examples where objects sitting on pretty flat colored backgrounds. I'd like to see what happens when you try to remove an object in a complex environment. Like removing a single person standing in a crowd.

    1. Re:Cool, but probably still has a ways to go. by smallfries · · Score: 3, Informative

      Take a look at the explanation part of the video. The background texture is tiled. You can see some strange deformation in the regular pattern where the object used to be. Also in the drain example there is a strange crater effect as the camera angle changes.

      It seems like smooth colour graduations work well, but patterned backgrounds have more obvious deformations.

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  3. Do we still believe what we see? by gknoy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This has some frightening ramifications for how much we believe video. Videos similar to the ones Wikileaks leaked, or news videos "live" on scene, could be doctored in near enough to real time that we consumers might never know it. Scary.

  4. Journalistic Integrity by Defenestrar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Great - it'll start off by making eyesore real estate disappear from "live coverage," then be required as a precondition for live celebrity interviews (not just makeup to cover that acne), moving on to inconvenient points to the story that would take too much time and effort to explain, then images which might "disturb the children" (number of student bodies in Tienanmen Square?), and finally develop to ubiquitous studio-in-a-cameras such that we'll have little assurance of whether live coverage is fact or fiction.

    Of course that's just pessimism speaking. Really I'm looking forward to watching live reports without those obnoxious people waving at their mothers, or holding up witty slogans about taxation.

  5. I thought what I'd do is... by Gordonjcp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

    1. Re:I thought what I'd do is... by mister_playboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That phrase was familiar to me, but I wasn't sure where I had seen it... now I remember:

      https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Laughing_Man_(Ghost_in_the_Shell)

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
    2. Re:I thought what I'd do is... by Securityemo · · Score: 3, Informative

      He learnt to edit himself out completely towards the end, though. Leading to a very big-ham moment with Batou exclaiming "He stole my eyes!"

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      Emotions! In your brain!
  6. Jar Jar by veggiespam · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally, we can restore my childhood memories and eviscerate Jar-Jar from the last batch of Star Wars movies.

  7. Thwartable by srussia · · Score: 4, Funny

    FTFA:"It does seem to be thwarted by reflections though; a cell phone removed from a bathroom counter is still visible in the mirror."

    "Zoom in on the reflection...ENHANCE!"

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    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  8. Nomenclature by Posting=!Working · · Score: 3, Funny

    We need a name for this process. I suggest "to Jar-Jar." Examples:

    They Jar-Jared the cell phone and stapler off the desk.
    "Jar-jar the 3-D glasses off the chair."
    Al Pacino released the "Actor's cut" of Godfather 3 and Jar-jared himself out of the movie.
    I'd like to Jar-jar my ex-girlfriend from my brain.
    It was a guy! He Jar-jared his webcam!

       

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    This sentence no verb.