We've seen some decent video alteration in our day, but this new research project by some folks at the University of Washington has the potential to turn the entire concept on its head. Using some rather advanced algorithms to analyze video and photographs of a the same scene, the software can meld the two into something slightly better or even dramatically different. In effect, it's Photoshop for video, since it brings your Photoshop chops to bear on video effects: edit up a still shot or two of the scene, and then meld that with the video, and your edits can be seamlessly integrated into the scene, without all that nasty manual labor required by Shake or After Effects. It's not the end all be all yet, since the tech only works with static scenes so far, but the researchers are working to rectify that. While video evidence hasn't been a sure thing for years, it's always been significantly harder to fiddle with than still shots. With that barrier removed, we might be in for a whole new generation of video that lies and a reality we can be none too sure of. Oh, and really good looking indie flicks. Sample vid is after the break.
posted Aug 16th 2008 8:24PM
This could do some real harm rather than help...
But it's motha****** science, that's AWESOME.
This was already posted on Engadget over a year ago.
They used this link last may:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PktKqyRXIE
Ya. Now I'd be tempted to make my webcam show a 9 incher.
so...theoreticaly...
...i could create a videotape of someone wearing a pair of Bruno Magli shoes, even if they didn't actually own them?
You could do that now... however this software would just take out alot of steps in that process.
also the person couldn't move around with this software, being that it only works in a static scene.
but lol yeh i guess you are right, if you wanted to do that why not.
Waaaaaaiiit a second, never mind changing shoes......that means I can have someone else instead of my girlfriend in that video?
From what I can tell, you'd need to take a whole bunch of really good still photos along with the video. This whole thing is mildly interesting but totally impractical. Is it surprising that they can use the information from super-high resolution photos to improve a super-low resolution video of exactly the same scene?
Surprising? No. Incredibly difficult to do this well? Yes.
Also: DO WANT
I think that reference just flew over everyone's head... You win!
Just what I've been waiting for...
(insert evil laugh here)
but seriously...it looks like it wouldn't have taken this long to do this.
Yeah I know, I wrote a similar program when I was bored last night
/sarcasm
I SEE YOU, CARMACK.
Your fake sarcasm tags don't throw me.
Someone should tell these Huskies that Vimeo can take 720p video. On the other hand, that's some pretty awesome, commercializable tech they are inventing!!! :D
This will be useful in the porno industry!
Now if we'd combine this technique with the new Nikon D90 DSLR, which features video recording, so that the camera would take photos at the same time while shooting the video, it could revolutionize video recording!
I was thinking the same thing, but with an HD Video camera.
1920x1080 is basically a 2 megapixel photo.
^ I'm pretty sure the prices are the same as well genius. The point of this is that you can have an el cheapo cam corder wich also takes high res photos. Combine them and you're rivaling a multi 1000 $ cal corder.
Snap, this is l33t stuff.
I think the camera stabilization thing was crazy good for not requiring any other input.
Cool, this is clever stuff, very good!
Exactly, great job. The first one without a comment about how to abuse it for himself ;)
That is truly amazing... But to call it PhotoShop for video is almost an insult to it, this does the work for you, in PhotoShop you have to control how you use each tool (excluding filters, to a degree) and it can take a considerable amount of hard work on your part to get results in a still which are seemingly effortless in video using this.
I'm pretty sure a great deal of the steps to create the videos using this software were not included in the demo. For example, taking the no parking sign out involved manually removing it from one frame, a very photoshop-esque chore. This is stepping up the level of complexity significantly over photoshop, and you can expect that the amount of manual labor will be similar, if not more.
Actually, the only step to remove the sign is to manually mask the area, since the system know 3d data will errase the 3d object by using information of the back ( it get it from other frames ) so, basically all you need is enough data. in this case showing the back of the sign will be enough for the system to fill the hole.
Great, now we will have trillions of videos that will overuse the lens flare filter.
Whoo! This is something i will probably never use (or be able to afford) in my life but it looks amazing :D
All they have to do is
1. become a household software item and
2. neglect linux
and BAM, you have thousands of pissed coders making something you can afford.
....over the next three years
Wow... just... wow. Truly ground-breaking technology. The video demo was absolutely fascinating!
I think I just shat myself
hopefully it actually works, lol
See! R. Kelly was right!!
That piss was digital!
this wouldn't actually work for most of what you guys are saying (shoe change, porn), because it's limited to scenes with no moving objects. that said, it's still an incredible piece of technology. i can hardly even believe it. hopefully they will be able to iron out that one kink. it does say they're working on it.
of course it will work for porn, fake boobs doesn't move.
*sigh*
I'm not trying to be too weird here, but the physics part of my brain has the following to say:
back and forth. how hard can it be?
That is one of the most amazing new video editing technologies I have ever seen. I HAVE to have it. PLEASE tell me this is available for sale...
I've seen video cameras out there that take still pictures at a higher resolution than they take video (i.e., HD stills and SD video). Think of the software possibilities on board one of these cameras. What about the possibility of having every ~5 seconds of video trigger a high-resolution still shot? Coupled with this software, are we looking at the birth of cheap(er) HD video cameras? (ok, not true HD, but humor me here).
man, this is awesome!
I can't wait to get my hands on the torrent for this program!
I just hope it's a proper, simple .msi instead of some .exe installer.
.exe installers need to go die.
...course, even .msi allows things to get more mutant than they need to be, which is why I prefer .deb and .rpm, but I haven't seen .deb and .rpm packages for windows...
What format does OSX Fink use?
Thats amazing! I work at a tv station and to think at how much that will help. Say someone leaves a mike cable across the set and we dont catch it until we move the camera, this can fix it much easier than rerecording the whole thing.
Amazing...................... wow....
wow, that looks really nice.
now all i have to do is buy a average to crappy video cam and this program and im done??
or am i incorrect...
average crappy video camera + this + good regular camera + photoshopping skills
would be interesting to take a an old movie, photographing new high res photos of the old locations and 'updating the movie'. obviously the actors would remain the old res.. just saying it'd be interesting.
like i said, currently the system only works on scenes with no moving objects. hopefully they get it worked out, but that's a BIG hurdle, trust me :)
Unbelievable, but, I kinda thought people were already doing this .. obviously I was wrong, or "space time fusion" is just a new term for what can already be done ?
HOLY *****!!! O_O;
-Blade Genexis
Go DAWGS! this is great stuff
I see your 2007 technology and raise you 2008 technology!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suAL6eYqKeM
That is some serious moustache technology!
Excellent find.
Nice job Microsoft.