German university makes objects disappear in real time, will bring the magic to Android (video)
Ever heard of diminished reality? It's much like the augmented sort, except instead of using computers to add information to one's field of vision, DR is about taking things out. That easy enough with a still image, perhaps, but the Technical University of Ilmenau's figured out a way to do it with full motion video. Just draw a circle around the object you want to disappear, and poof, it's practically gone, as the image synthesizer reduces the quality of the image drastically, removes your target and re-enhances in just 40 milliseconds per frame, using object tracking algorithms and guesswork to maintain the illusion as a camera moves around in 3D space. The framework's presently running on Windows, but the team tells us it has plans to port it to Android soon, and it will likely be free for non-commercial use. See it in action after the break.
[Thanks, Lars W.]