Inpainting Software Removes People and Objects from HD Video
Some pretty amazing new software developed by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics is bringing something akin to cloning to the world of HD video. Using a step-by-step process, the software removes moving people or objects from video and then fills in the empty space with data from other frames.
If it seems a little “too good to be true,” watch the video at the top and skip forward to the “Results” section around 2:07. For the rest of the video they show example after example of scenes where one subject — who is jumping around and waving his arms — is removed from the video entirely, leaving only the slightest trace that he was ever there.
It’s worth mentioning that video inpainting software has been developed before this; this is just the first time inpainting has been applied successfully to high-definition video. Previous versions often left artifacts that were almost as distracting as the original object when applied to HD.
The technical details behind how they avoided these pitfalls are, well, a bit technical, so check out the video or the full project page if you want more info on how they make the digital magic happen.
(via Ubergizmo)
