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Video Inpainting Software Deletes People From HD Video Footage
cylonlover writes "In a development sure to send conspiracy theorists into a tizzy, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MPII) have developed video inpainting software that can effectively delete people or objects from high-definition footage. The software analyzes each video frame and calculates what pixels should replace a moving area that has been marked for removal. In a world first, the software can compensate for multiple people overlapped by the unwanted element, even if they are walking towards (or away from) the camera."
Background has to be static for it to work.
Nevertheless, an interesting accomplishment.
Researchers have developed video inpainting to remove the character Jar Jar Binks from the Star Wars Prequals.
Don't the new Galaxy S4 have a similar feature, if I read correctly? Although only for photos.
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
I liked the fact that you could still see the pedestrians in the reflections of the display window in the video of the musicians, even though they had been erased from the front end. Like the vampire test, but the other way around.
So combine this tech with Google Glass and identify people you just don't want to see ever again, and you may end up walking right into them without even knowing.
You can't handle the truth.
Ten years ago, I predicted a "nudie button," which, instead of removing people from live video, would simply remove their clothing (through interpolation). I do not endorse the use of such a button on your TV's remote control, I merely predict its future existence.
If you take a close look you see the reflections of the removed persons still present
Very impressive though
Why isn't there one? Since you know... that's the entire fucking point of this software...
Why would they be thrown into a tizzy? Didn't they already allege the existence of such a software? Now they get to say that this version is purposefully limited to leave reflections of deleted people, so they (conspiracy nutjobs, ahem, theorists) are lulled into a false sense of confidence.
can you guys remove the motorcycle from this picture?
If we extrapolate this, perhaps we won't be able to trust video as evidence any longer, so there's no reason to have all these surveillance cameras around.
This course on Coursera describes the basics of that technology. It's in its final week but I'm sure it will be reissued later on. They have other courses about computer vision announced for the next months.
The course was pretty interesting but you don't really have to do any programming to get a grade (programming assignments are optional). Lucky for me, because I have a job and no time to spend on lengthy programming assignments, but one can't become an expert of that subject just by listening at the lessons and doing the multiple choice quizzes.
Star Trek without Wesley Crusher
At 23C3 in Berlin, someone held a talk on OpenCV's capabilites. Among other things, he demonstrated exactly the application FTA. The talk is in German, but the pictures show pretty much what he's talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il1J9CLLHp4
Joseph Stalin would have loved this.
People have been doing this for far more than the last 5 years. It is a trivial application of so-called 'optical flow' where motion vectors are used to identify independently moving objects within a scene.
One interesting application (seen, for instance, in the Will Smith film "I am legend") takes video footage of a real environment, and converts the footage into a virtual static 'texture' for the background elements. Artists can then repaint over this 'texture' to add damage to buildings etc. The new texture can now be reapplied to the original footage, so the moving shot appears to show the artistic changes in visual context. Clearly this method will not stand up to the same scrutiny as remodelling buildings in CGI, and inserting them into a virtual set, but it works well for backgrounds.
Films today frequently use a so-called skybox- a 360 panorama stitched from multiple still photos shot on location. This skybox allows a virtual background to be 'projected' behind the actors (say when they are pretending to be on top of a tall building or mountain) that can track the rotational movement of the camera.
The idea of element extraction forms the basis of various camera enhanced video games found on the current consoles. Usually, the technique is the reverse of the example in the article, where it is the background that is removed so that the player may be isolated and inserted into a virtual scene.
Slashdot needs editors that know something about technology, but that isn't going to happen while the owners of Slashdot use the tech stories to draw readers to the constant anti-Iranian warmongering propaganda that appears here almost daily.
The best ues of technology EVER!
Software of this type has existed for a long time. It's commonly used for rig removal, but can be used to remove any object that is 'outlined' for removal. Next-and-last frame comparison is what 'batch clones-out' the outlined object. It's the same tech that Boujou used (vector analysis, per-pixel tracking via next-current-last frame comparison), but that app is/was used more for creating a virtual camera path for a 3D environment... Mokey was pretty good at this type of object removal, too (it's called Mocha, now - www.imagineersystems.com ). This type of software is pretty common and many companies make their own in-house if they have the need, I'd think. Remember how they removed Denzel Washington's character from the remake of The Manchurian Candidate? The real-time aspect is where we're going.. like The Running Man w Schwarzenegger. They used this type of tech in it, but in near real-time. That's scary.
No sig for you! Come back one year!
... I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.
Didn't the executives do this in Rising Sun? They deleted a rapist's face from the security cam.
This would be a cool usecase. I dont mind JarJar so much though, theres lots of stranger things in starwars, but i'd make a good technology demo.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
iStalin
CCTV no longer valid evidence?
I have seen this done in After Effects 5 years ago. In fact I remember a script/template that was floating around that tried to automate it quite well.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Doesn't the Samsung Galaxy S IV have this feature?
the sponsor which pays for the broadcast paints over the stadium ads for the sponsor's competition. for example: in an auto race, the TV sponsor, Budweiser, paints the Miller car.
Anyone reminded of the Laughing Man from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex?
A hacker who was able to hack the cybernetic vision of others in real-time to make himself invisible...
I've done the same thing using layers in after effects and re-rendering the video. I'm not sure of a practical use for this technology unless it can save me time. To make this kind of change realtime would definitely be usefull!
If you can take someone out, you can put someone in. Think about it.
Anybody remember the Bothachrome comedy skit?
** We're sorry, the author of this thoughtcrime has been vaporized. **
...make sure you turn it off before going into a Walmart or KFC etc.
If that happens, I predict some nerds with Google Glasses gouging their eyes out...
They'd have to develop a similar algorithm for audio though.
I think I'd find a mute Jar Jar far easier to tolerate than an invisible one.
I believe this is just an extension of the research done by this guy.
I like this approach better. That was posted on Slashdot back in 2008.
Now I have installed an Active People Filter to remove people from all those Internet videos and movies and DVDs I watch. Along with speech and vocal removal filters for music, speech removal.
The filters have learned what people look like and do a fair job at stamping them out of still images too.
Now my life is like a series of paintings in still-life. Sitcoms are rooms of silent furniture and no stupid laughter, the Olympics and football a breathtaking vista of grand spaces and odd sporting equipment lying around.
I take long walks through the Internet, I am surrounded by the sounds of nature and gallivant in sun dappled glade. All is well.
Now I am alone in the whole world. And then the silent spell is broken shrilly. Microsoft wants to install updates on my computer.
My life is light, waiting for the death wind,
Like a feather on the back of my hand.
Dust in sunlight and memory in corners
Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land.
~TS Eliot
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
What does this have to do with the number of pixels of the video format? Why even mention the words "HD"? Is this software unable to operate at higher compression formats or smaller aspect ratios?
... and replace him with walkie talkies so as not to scare the children!
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)