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Optical Camouflage Puts Kinect Into Stealth Mode

Posted by timothy on from the where-are-you-anyhow dept.

UgLyPuNk writes "Takayuki Fukatsu, a Japanese coder who works under the name Art & Mobile, has done a bit of trickery with Kinect and openFrameworks. The peripheral will still track your movement and position, but turns your image nearly transparent. Take a look (it's particularly obvious at about 1:30):"

13 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. The background doesn't change by igreaterthanu · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article states that he hasn't said how it is filling in the gaps, it's really easy to fill in the changes in the background with a static image and this may be how he is doing it, I could achieve the same effect with a regular webcam.

    --
    I dream of a nation where a man is not judged by his skin color but by an number assigned by a credit rating agency.
    1. Re:The background doesn't change by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's a shade more sophisticated than that. I think he's using the existing make-a-texture-mapped-model-of-the-space code, but telling it to texture map anything that's non-background with an pre-existing image of the background. It's a cute project, obviously intended to recreate the look of the sci-fi cloaking effect, rather than do anything clever. After all, you could achieve a much more effective result by just replacing the feed with one in which the person was not present.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    2. Re:The background doesn't change by Pseudonym+Authority · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sure, maybe you could. But you haven't, so don't be a dick.

    3. Re:The background doesn't change by PremiumCarrion · · Score: 2

      Can't speak for GP but I've done better using just a JPEG of a background. You can't see when I move at all.

    4. Re:The background doesn't change by Ecuador · · Score: 2

      But he does have a point. How is this using kinect's abilities? How is this different than EffectTV's PredatorTV filter? Is the guy just using all the late kinect dev rage to get credit for doing something simple and available for years, or he is really doing something new?
      I can't really see how the kinect depth info could help. Now, the other guy with 2 kinect's providing a 3d view really did have something, and he could easily add a predator filter to make something invisible, as he would be able to see behind it anyway as long as it was not a blind spot.

      --
      Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
    5. Re:The background doesn't change by Sockatume · · Score: 2

      The depth info tells you what's non-background in the scene unambiguously, and allows the texture map to distort to follow the object, which is a bit closer to the way the effect was depicted in GitS and the latter MGS games.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    6. Re:The background doesn't change by evilbessie · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think it very much more simple than all of that, he's obviously just taken a couple of polaroids stuck them in front of the cameras and then he's just walking around in front of the depth sensor, so the software is just using the depth information to alter the still images. Not really clever at all and as far as I can see damn obvious from the video (the pink border which shows on the right hand side).

    7. Re:The background doesn't change by Ecuador · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Notice how when he walks far back, the distortion goes away and he disappears completely. What does that tell you?
      So, he is using depth info, but what he is doing with it is rather lame. He still has a static image of the empty room, otherwise when the person went far enough back, he would have to appear uncloaked not disappear completely. Of course you would need 2 kinects and much more work to avoid the need for a static background image and just apply the "cloak" to objects nearer than the background. But that would certainly be cool.
      What we have here, you can do better without a kinect by simple diffing of the background image. If he at least used the depth info to alter the distortion it would be interesting, but it seems to me that when he is walking towards or away from the camera the distortion does not change at all.

      --
      Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
    8. Re:The background doesn't change by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "pre existing image of the background" this makes it an epic fail, but cute project.

      I'l be impressed if it generates the background without ANY reference images or reference data.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    9. Re:The background doesn't change by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      There has been a plugin for after effects to do this EXACT effect but in more detail and clairty for years. all you need is a green screen shot of the target and the footage you want the effect on.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    10. Re:The background doesn't change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The pink border is the wallpaper of his desktop computer. He is taking a video to his monitor.

  2. a bit slashdotted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/02/kinect-now-offers-a-stealth-mode-courtesy-of-optical-camouflage/
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qhXQ_1CQjg

  3. I can't watch this video by pinkushun · · Score: 2

    It's camouflaged by work's firewall :P