DiminishedReality
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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.]
Graduate student erases pedestrians from Google Street View
We love Google, oh yes we do, but there's no question the company could use some brownie points when it comes to privacy. That's not to say Mountain View doesn't try -- the firm does blur license plates and faces in Street View when it's not unintentionally snooping our WiFi. However, a UCSD graduate student has a more thorough idea: simply make the pedestrians disappear entirely. Arturo Flores' algorithm does just that, determining what to erase and what to keep using two adjacent frames. Because Google's roaming cameras end up taking images of the same subject from multiple angles, the program can grab bits of the background (in this case, the sidewalk, lawn and building) from either side, then layer them over the pedestrian in the foreground to hide him from view. It doesn't yet work on persons who are walking the same direction as the camera, or when there are many in the frame, but these obstacles can be surmounted at a later date. Here's hoping Google's PR team gives Arturo a buzz, so we can finally enjoy architecture without all those pesky humans in the way.
