Obstructions Vanish From Images Treated With New Software From MIT, Google

[PoliticAverse]

In a mesmerizing video, a researcher explains the math behind what seems like magic — photographs in which the view is obscured by things like chain-link fences and reflections become free of clutter with just a few clicks.

Researchers at MIT and Google have created an algorithm that uses multiple images taken from different angles to separate foreground obstacles from the subject that's in the background — anything from your favorite view or a sign in a window on a bright day.

We don't entirely understand how they do this, and there's no word yet on when the software might reach consumers, but it's a pretty neat trick. Check it out:

Read the rest at: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/05/429720274/obstructions-vanish-from-images-treated-with-new-software-from-mit-google

[NV Whino]

1. I have no idea what that video said

But it's very cool.

[flamin lib]

2. Witchcraft! And Magic! nt

[Freelancer]

3. So, if I post a video of a bird on the feeder outside the window, people can see inside my house.

Marvelous. Simply marvelous.

[Recursion]

6. If you post multiple shots from multiple angles, and everything through your window is shown

in at least one of them, then the software will assemble a view of what's behind the bird feeder.

[Binkie The Clown]

4. You can sort of do that by hand.

I once wanted to take a picture of a locomotive at a railroad museum, but there were people in the way of getting a clear shot, so I put the camera on a tripod and took 6 or 8 photos of the locomotive as the people walked around. By stacking them up in layers in Paintshop Pro I could erase a person from one layer and let the locomotive show through from another layer taken when nobody was standing in front of that particular part of the locomotive.

Another application: I had a beautiful sunset picture, but from where I was standing on a freeway overpass bridge I had to take the picture through a chain link fence. I took two pictures, moving the camera about half an inch between exposures. The distant background stayed the same, but the close chainlink fence moved a lot. I layered the exposures and erase the fence from one layer to let the background show through from a different layer.

Another application (this was actually the first time I tried this) was a beautiful picture of a tree. The problem was there was a telephone wire hanging in in the foreground. I took two exposures, and moved the camera about an inch up before taking the second one. Layering the two exposures in Paintshop the wire appeared in two different places in the two layers, but the tree looked the same in both. By erasing the wire in one layer, the tree showed through from the other layer.

[Freelancer]

5. This could work on every video ever captured! Hope you had on jammies when you shot that, 20yrs back

This image separation -- revealing the interior reflection in detail is really irksome. It's a retroactive invasion of privacy.

[hunter]

7. Math: it's awesome!

[Locrian]

8. Esper Photo Analysis

I'm sure it'll be commercially available by 2019

[They_Live]

9. my thought pattern also

move to the right.

zoom in...