Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

MovieReshape Like Bruce Sterling's Video-Manicuring

MovieReshape is a system that makes possible "quick and easy" manipulation of the body shape of a human actor in video footage. The system makes use of a morphable model of human shape in three dimensions; the model was created using laser scans of real people.


(MovieReshape Morphable body model [pdf])
(a) Samples of the pose and shape parameter
space that is spanned by the model.
(b) The average human shape with the
embedded kinematic skeleton.

Take a look at this short video demonstrating MovieReshape; it's a remarkable tool


(MovieReshape like Sterling's video-manicuring program)

Our system takes as input a single-view or multi-view video sequence with footage of a human actor to be spatio-temporally reshaped (Fig. 2). There is no specific requirement on the type of scene, type of camera, or appearance of the background.

As a first step, the silhouette of the actor in the video footage is segmented using off-the-shelf video processing tools. The second step in the pipeline is marker-less model fitting. There, both the shape and the pose parameters of the 3D model are optimized such that it reprojects optimally into the silhouette of the actor in each video frame. Once the model is tracked, the shape parameters of the actor can be modified by simply tweaking a set of sliders corresponding to individual semantic shape attributes. Since the original PCA parameter dimensions of the morphable shape model do not directly correspond to plausible shape attributes, we learn a mapping from intuitive attributes, such as muscularity or weight, to the underlying PCA space.

Now reshaping can be performed by adjusting plausible parameter values. Once the target set of shape attributes has been decided on, they are applied to the actor in all frames of the video input by performing image-based warping under the influence of constraints that are derived from the re-projected modified body model.

It looks like real-life technology has finally caught up with Bruce Sterling's video-manicuring program from his 1985 novel Schismatrix:

Lindsay had a brief glimpse of the man's true appearance - white hair in spiky disarray, red-rimmed eyes - before a video-manicuring program came on line. The program raced up the screen one scan line at a time, subtly smoothing, deleting and coloring.
(Read more about Sterling's video-manicuring program)

I think that Ray Bradbury should also get an honorable mention for the spot-wavex scrambler from his 1953 classic Fahrenheit 451.

From MovieReshape: Tracking and Reshaping of Humans in Videos [pdf] via Gizmodo.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/11/2010)

Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )

Related News Stories - (" Engineering ")

Has Musk Given Up On Full Self Driving (FSD)?
'...some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre...' - Charles Stross, 2007.

Prufrock-3 'The Monster' Ready To Launch
Just go for it.

Hybrid Wind Solar Devices
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.' - Simpson Stokes, 1937.

BeamBike Solar Power Canopy For Electric Bikes
'The slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector...' - David Brin, 1990.

 

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

Miss Alabama Beauty Contest Offers Different Standards
'...they moved with the ease of dandelion puffs.'

Has Musk Given Up On Full Self Driving (FSD)?
'...some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre...'

Prufrock-3 'The Monster' Ready To Launch
Just go for it.

Drones In Vast Airborne Grids
'These pods were programmed to hang in space in a hexagonal grid pattern...'

Starship Special Edition For Lunar Shuttle
Love those special edition spaceships.

Capturing Asteroids With Nets
'...the meteor caught and halted just as a small boy catches a swift ball in his cap.'

Project Hyperion - Generation Ship Designers Needed!
'We have decided that it shall be but one ship... it must contain everything needed to take us through the generations.'

AI Welfare Position At Anthropic Filled By Human
'You’re the robopsychologist of the plant, so you’re to study the robot itself...'

Marslink Proposed By SpaceX
'It was the heart of the Solar System's communication line...'

Simple Way To Defeat AI Face Recognition
'... designed to foil facial recognition systems.'

Wood-Panelled LignoSat Launched
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'

Laser-Beam Welding In Orbital Factories
'His contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory.'

'Iceberg House' Of Travis Kelce Reflects Science Fiction Of Past Century
'The basement was huge... carved deep into the rock that folded up to underlie the ridge...'

Mechazilla Arms Catch A Falling Starship, But Check Out SF Landing-ARMS
'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'

A System To Defeat AI Face Recognition
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'

Robot Hand Separate From Robot
'The crawling, exploring object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.