Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

AI Can Generate a 3D Model of a Person After Watching a Few Seconds of Video (sciencemag.org)

Posted by msmash on from the intriguing-advances dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: A new algorithm creates 3D models using standard video footage from one angle. The system has three stages. First, it analyzes a video a few seconds long of someone moving -- preferably turning 360-degree to show all sides -- and for each frame creates a silhouette separating the person from the background. Based on machine learning techniques -- in which computers learn a task from many examples -- it roughly estimates the 3D body shape and location of joints. In the second stage, it "unposes" the virtual human created from each frame, making them all stand with arms out in a T shape, and combines information about the T-posed people into one, more accurate model. Finally, in the third stage, it applies color and texture to the model based on recorded hair, clothing, and skin.

19 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. I can see this being popular with the gamer crowd by mark-t · · Score: 1

    Assuming that it can be made to run on home computers, that is.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  2. Motion is still lacking by glenebob · · Score: 1

    Based on the video, what we should really be working on is how to make such models move like a real human.

    1. Re:Motion is still lacking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Based on the video, what we should really be working on is how to make such models move like a real human.

      And yet another reason I grow to hate AI. It easily brings as much bad as good, if not more.

      Simply put, once you have an accurate model of a human, that you can't easily tell from a real one, then you just green screen an actor with the same basic body shape and positioning pads in a camera, and we have "proof" of whatever you wanted proof of.

      Perhaps you could still spot such fakes today, but for how much longer? And, really, how many people would notice even today? I know this isn't the first story that has a similar ability to generate fake video...

      I'm still half expecting a tape of Trump in a Russian hotel to appear, regardless of whether one originally existed. Republicans might fake one or prop a weak one up as a target dummy just so they could uncover the evil conspiracy theory. Slaying the straw men is a popular fad with them. Hell, I wouldn't put it past some particularly angry democrat, or just a foreign nation wanting to stir the pot.

      The point being, what if we reach the point that video proof means nothing if it is not backed up by half a dozen witnesses with no apparent axe to grind? I suppose some of that might be mitigated by having the video created by certified hardware with encryption and signatures every step of the way, maybe...

    2. Re:Motion is still lacking by glenebob · · Score: 2

      Hating the inevitable doesn't seem very useful. It isn't "what if", it's "when".

    3. Re: Motion is still lacking by javaman235 · · Score: 1

      Yes, hardware on blockchain, distributed so no one can be "ministry of truth". Video editing software then must publish their source videos, with veracity to be trusted, and final product also checksumed on chain.

      --
      -The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
    4. Re:Motion is still lacking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well, the terrorists in Douma didn't even need automatic 3D scan or AI. They only needed to spread the rumor of a chemical attack, film panicked people dousing each other with water, fetch a few corpses of babies and add them to the "movie stage".
      This requires to have a few suffocating people (they had inhaled smoke due to being in a war zone) and a few dead babies around.

      Then, everyone can call the US, UK and France for their bullshit. But will the journalist and their so-called free press dare question the story? Not at all it seems. Not in print or airwaves.

      Possibly, there will fake videos made with 3D models some day, you'll be able to spot them if you really want, but we'll be collectively coerced into believing or stating they're real.

    5. Re:Motion is still lacking by flux · · Score: 1

      There exists some pretty compelling research on having a 3d model walk a complicated terrain in a natural looking fashion.

      But I was unable to find the video :(. It probably isn't older than a year or so..

  3. You call that AI? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Doesn't seem like it has much to do with artificial intelligence.

    Neat scanner program, though.

    1. Re:You call that AI? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Presumably, this is domain-specific: it seems to use the limited information available to solve a constraint problem. So it's not just a scanner program.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  4. Generalizing The Entire Person by pubwvj · · Score: 1

    ...In the next stage the system uses the phenotype information shown in the video combined with the 99.9999% shared genetic information between all humans to create a nearly exact genome for the person. ...In the final step the AI system uses your likes, preferences, cookie trails and other information gleaned from your online life to fill in the life experience portion and recreate your personality.

    This all allows the marketers to then pinpoint your exact weaknesses to advertising so that you BUY, BUY, BUY, BUY!!!!

    1. Re:Generalizing The Entire Person by TimMD909 · · Score: 1

      ...In the next stage the system uses the phenotype information shown in the video combined with the 99.9999% shared genetic information between all humans to create a nearly exact genome for the person. ...In the final step the AI system uses your likes, preferences, cookie trails and other information gleaned from your online life to fill in the life experience portion and recreate your personality.

      This all allows the marketers to then pinpoint your exact weaknesses to advertising so that you BUY, BUY, BUY, BUY!!!!

      You've got two different Futurama episodes mashed together there. Seriously, do yourself a favor and brush up on our religious texts.

  5. Stop with the AI by TimMD909 · · Score: 1

    Jesus... Everything is AI these days. That's like calling a newborn baby making fart noises a classical musician. At best, the baby could be employed for background music in mumble rap songs. A classical musician? Heavens no.

  6. AI porn by kcelery · · Score: 1

    This is one step closer to the computer generated porn.

    1. Re:AI porn by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 1

      It isn't useful till it can differentiate the booty between Jessica Alba in Idle Hands and Jessica Biel. Until then body modeling is only a vague suggestion that people are different.

      Locating the joints automatically is nust a step above marking them manually and using a generic body.

  7. Of course this is AI. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Watching a video and from that being able to build a 3d model of a person.... ....is something that normally requires intelligence. Rocks can't do it. Neither can plants. Nor steam engines.

    This fits the definition of Artificial Intelligence exactly.

    You just have some kind of chip on your shoulder.

  8. Expect Rapid Physical Modeling by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    This is actually one of the advances I had predicted many years ago. The next steps are interesting but ultimately you end up with what I refer to as "Rapid Physical Modeling" where in you can take an object, do a quick 360 view of it and then capture it's physical properties by manipulating it. A simple example is demonstrating how a potted plant can bend and it's ability to bend and spring back are inferred. The obvious benefit of this is that you can quickly model things with complex interactive response. With a little data regarding the material, clothing for your character could quickly be modeled and react properly (think folding) to the characters physical movements.

    I'm looking forward to characters in Final Fantasy XVIII having to constantly adjust their clothing because it's construction patently absurd. ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  9. Why are these described as AI? by oobayly · · Score: 1

    Even the summary describes it as a [learning] algorithm. Yes, it's bloody impressive, but it's an algorithm tuned to execute one specific task. If anything it's an Artificial Savant.

  10. Contradiction by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    A new algorithm creates 3D models using standard video footage from one angle. The system has three stages. First, it analyzes a video a few seconds long of someone moving -- preferably turning 360-degree to show all sides

    That's not one angle, then, is it?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  11. Re:So . . . by Wraithlyn · · Score: 1

    Every armchair genius in here commenting about how this is nothing new or impressive is completely missing that this creates a fully posable and articulated model with joints, etc.

    Please show me a prior example of an existing solution that accomplishes the same thing from regular video footage.

    --
    "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson