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Rendering Synthetic Objects Into Old Photographs

First time accepted submitter IDarkISwordI writes "A new abstract headed to SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 provides a method for rapid execution of computer graphics, synthesized into photographs with accurate lighting and physics based on limited input from a user and interpretation by their code." The results are impressive; hard to watch the video demo (on linked page) without boggling.

22 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Virtual house dressing by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is going to be very useful for real estate sales. No need to move furniture into an empty house for the pictures.

    1. Re:Virtual house dressing by SpazmodeusG · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No problem. Just use context aware fill to remove the furniture from the image.

  2. That is indeed quite impressive by No,+I+am+Spratacus! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Especially getting the lighting and the shadows to fit the rest of the image.

  3. This will come in handy... by durin · · Score: 2

    ... the next time someone wants to frame someone else for murder ;P

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  4. Too real by Wolfling1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, that pretty well wraps it up for anyone trying to prove anything supernatural or extra-terrestrial on earth. Who would ever believe any video evidence now?

    1. Re:Too real by adolf · · Score: 5, Informative

      True, this is much more advanced technology and seems to be amazingly effective, but a good photoshop editor has been able to fool the public for quite a long time now.

      The best part about this tech is that it does not require a "good" photoshop editor to sort out the light paths and shadows/reflections/etc manually, but just a person willing to graphically describe the scene using a GUI. After that, arbitrary 3D objects can be more-or-less added arbitrarily with uncanny realism.

      This includes, perhaps unfortunately, realtors.

      (And to the English Nazi(s) reading this: "graphically" and "GUI" are not redundant terms in this context.)

  5. Weeping angel by zebadee · · Score: 3, Funny

    Right at the end of the video. Now you can have a weeping angel moving through your very own lounge!

    1. Re:Weeping angel by pauljlucas · · Score: 2

      They should have had a TARDIS materialize. That would have been awesome.

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  6. Re:Those photo's look.... by qxcv · · Score: 4, Funny
    --
    "The most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an existing codebase that is just good enough." -- Eric S. Raymond
  7. Re: by NFN_NLN · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any software available for download, only the research paper.

    The release is delayed because the software is limited to only a few useful objects at the moment: Buddha Statue, Dragon Statue, Pool Table and Dead Hooker.
     

  8. Re:Those photo's look.... by SomePgmr · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or more appropriately... http://xk3d.xkcd.com/331/

  9. I think we already got there. by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 4, Funny
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    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
    1. Re:I think we already got there. by martin-boundary · · Score: 2

      Wait, is that the R2 unit we're looking for?

  10. Re: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any software available for download, only the research paper.

    The release is delayed because the software is limited to only a few useful objects at the moment: Buddha Statue, Dragon Statue, Pool Table and Dead Hooker.

    But I need software that can *remove* dead hookers from photos! That's the problem with academia, totally disconnected with the needs of the real world.

  11. Who needs a computer? by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 2

    The communists under Stalin were "fixing" photographs to remove undesirable people for a long time, many years before electronic computers and graphics were invented. Of course, the undesirable people were removed from real life as well...

    --
    Chaos maximizes locally around me.
    1. Re:Who needs a computer? by biodata · · Score: 2, Funny

      In Soviet Russia pictures shop you.

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  12. George Lucas... by dotancohen · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...will have a field day with this. Please, someone keep him away from whatever _is_ left of the original Star Wars film!

    Didn't someone once suggest that we refer to these techniques as lucassizing?

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  13. Re: by daid303 · · Score: 2

    No, no, no. No need for that.

    Just add the dead hooker to a lot of photos, see, that's not a real dead hooker in my photo's, it's added with a computer, see, here is the president with the same dead hooker! Instead of trying to hide the proof, invalidate the proof.

  14. Why are we trying to baffle future generations? by damburger · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, peak oil arrives, there is a superflu pandemic, 99942 Apophis impacts and blocks out the Sun, etc. etc. we all die.

    ...then, centuries later, technological civilisation reemerges, and starts analysing data storage devices they dig up. Most of them are unreadable, but they do get fragments of data with which they can start to piece together what happened before The Event.

    And what do they find? Pictures of people listening to iPods at the Battle of Stalingrad and Asimo raising the flag at Iwo Jima.

    --
    If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
  15. Seems kind of creepy to me by Just+Brew+It! · · Score: 2

    Once we've also got the ability to render realistic 3D models of real people we're going to be in big trouble.

  16. Modification by subtraction by john82 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Given that this approach is able to account for light sources, geometry (perspective) and physical objects in an original image, it should also be able to remove objects and allow for realistic rendering of that loss. Combine that with the capability described in the proposal and the use of photographs as evidence at trial may soon be inadmissible. Or at the very least, a legal team could reasonably claim that a photo had been doctored (whether true or not) and therefore render such evidence unusable by the prosecution.

  17. Re: by fritish · · Score: 2

    "I've never seen so many dead hookers in all my life!"

    "Lord knows I have..."

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