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."

Comments

Summary Fail

[Anonymous Coward]

Background has to be static for it to work.

Nevertheless, an interesting accomplishment.

Re:Summary Fail

[jimshatt]

But, then, how is anyone else to know about the dwarf. From the viewer's perspective the dwarf doesn't exist. For that matter, dwarfs might not even exist at all!
If you look at the video, though, the background doesn't have to be static. Objects moving over other moving objects can be removed as well. But, yeah, they have to be visible at some point.

Re:Summary Fail

[grumbel]

Background has to be static for it to work.

Nope

Re:Summary Fail

[Psyborgue]

Absolutely false. Check the Pax Planck page.

Very ancient technology

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Very ancient technology

[cffrost]

One day, you think it's cool that you've been "painted" into a video game...until you realize that same technology can "paint" you right into Exhibit A: The murder scene.

How long before innocent people are framed? Judges can't even understand how the internet works. You think they're going to grasp this and give you a fair trial?

Already, people are routinely convicted based on bullshit forensic pseudoscience: PBS Frontline: The Real CSI [torrent]

Re:Reflections

[mrbester]

Have these people never seen Rising Sun? This was a plot point 20 years ago.