Removing objects from an image without leaving any clues behind is tricky enough. Now imagine doing this over and over again on each frame of a video consisting of hundreds and thousands of frames? Video manipulation is indeed a laborious job. Now researchers at Technical University of Ilmenau in Germany have developed a software called “diminished reality” that can not only delete an object from a video, but does it from live, full-motion video.
The software first reduces the resolution of the object, removes the image, and improves the result (similar to using a smudge tool in Photoshop), then incrementally increases the resolution, improving the result, until the original resolution is restored. What makes Diminished reality system incredible is the speed of execution. The software can detect, remove, fill and match pixels on a frame within 40 milliseconds. This makes it possible to use the technology on live video streams.
To remove an object from a video, a user draws an enclosed loop around it. And before you can blink your eye, the object is gone! Watch the video. It is definitely one of the most amazing things I have ever watched.
Because of its real-time capability, the Diminished Reality System is currently unique in the world. Needless to say, the potential market for the technology is huge.
The software will initially be available for Windows. It will be introduced at the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) in Seoul, October 13 to 16.
[via Kurzweil]
Truly amazing. ingenious geniuses.