
Disney's new image algorithm turns 2D photos into a 3D model - makos
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20130729-disney-new-image-algorithm-turns-2d-photos-into-a-3d-model.html
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greendestiny
Wow tough crowd, this is actually extremely impressive if you're interested in
the subject. The fineness and complexity of the reconstructed depth field is
unparalleled.

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bsenftner
I work in the field of Computer Vision based 3D Reconstruction. Although this
development is "nice", it is hardly capable of the potential applications
cited. Notice any 3D reconstructions used anywhere other than novelty? That's
because they are mostly useless. In order to create useful 3D Reconstrucions,
the underlying reconstruction system needs to recognize the object and use
prior acquired references to supply information obscured from view, and/or
identify transformations (damage, wear) to the "original" objects and scene
being analyzed. The goal is to supply one image of an object, and receive back
a correctly formed, rigged for correct motion, 3d geometry of nearly any
common object. And it's coming.

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w_t_payne
Sometimes all you need is the geometry.

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bsenftner
What if you can't separate the geometry you want from the geometry next to it,
or the geometry it sets upon? That's the current public state of the art. Such
systems become much more useful after they can identify objects so they can
tell when two items are separate things, and when two sections of the same
thing are in fact one object.

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w_t_payne
If you are making a robot that has to manipulate objects in it's environment,
fair enough. If you are making a vehicle that just needs to know about the
free "drivable" space in it's vicinity, the barrier is lower.

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hardwaresofton
That's pretty awesome. I wonder if they will hook it up to google maps and
start using real cities for game levels.

Also related, check out the work Japan has been doing for years

[http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/23/live2d-drawing-
technology...](http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/23/live2d-drawing-technology-
turns-2d-3d/)

[http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/04/video-sonys-
motionportrai...](http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/04/video-sonys-
motionportrait-turns-photos-into-3d-animations-wit/)

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xedarius
This is pretty neat, although I would suggest perhaps of limited use. The
whole point of a 3D model is that it can be viewed from any angle (also at any
scale). The 2D scene lacks sufficient information to reconstruct the 3D scene.
This can be seen with the toys on the sofa when the back of the hippo becomes
visible and there is no texture or model data. You could extrapolate and
assume there's a degree of symmetry in the object, but this would only work on
a limited subset of objects.

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Keyframe
It looks like it could be a tremendous time saver for camera projection
mapping for matte paintings even if you don't circle all around set or
geometry. I suspect that was their motivation.

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dubcanada
Maybe it was to make a 3d versions of old 2d disney movies.

3d Aristocats anyone?

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Keyframe
Makes sense, since camera projection is used to convert 2d to 3d (movies).

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bnegreve
The title is a bit misleading, it's not from a single photo but from a video
stream.

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moocowduckquack
photos, not photo

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okamiueru
The English language is ambiguous here. In computer graphics, this is commonly
resolved by saying "image set", "video stream", "image sequences", etc.

Since this is computer vision topic, and it said "photos", and that this
particular "2D images -> 3D" has been implemented double-digit times each year
for at least the past 10 years, with so many research papers that you can
choose between dozens of survey papers instead. I too felt the title was
misleading.

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moocowduckquack
How is it ambiguous? Photos is plural and model is singular. That would seem
to be completely and utterly clear. Also, how does the fact that this area is
heavily researched affect anything?

Could it possibly be that your desire for novelty over incremental improvement
in an area heavily mined is what is colouring your expectations, rather than
the headline itself being misleading?

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bnegreve
I agree that it isn't a big deal but I was genuinely confused when I first
read the article. That's why I made this comment.

Even now, I still think that it is a bit misleading because they cannot
reconstruct the scene from _any_ photo(s) but only from a sequence of closely
related photos which is better described by the word 'video'.

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moocowduckquack
The last paragraph in the article states otherwise though.

 _" The photos were captured along a linear path; this geometry provided
structure that the researchers could leverage to make processing the data more
efficient. However, the researchers also generalized their approach so that it
can be applied even to a set of images taken with a hand-held camera."_

Also, even the photos taken on the rail are not taken as video. You can tell
this from the shots where someone is briefly in front of the camera. This is
because to get the best data you want the camera to stop at a position on the
rail while the shutter is open as otherwise you have to deal with motion blur
or keep your exposure very short.

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shreeshga
[http://make3d.cs.cornell.edu/](http://make3d.cs.cornell.edu/)

~~~
stelonix
That one is pretty neat. I remember it had interactive demos, but I can't find
them in that site (skimmed over it while at work).

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xabi
Other option:

Videotrace [http://punchcard.com.au/](http://punchcard.com.au/)

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kang
ProForma 3d scanner using a webcam : [http://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/getting-
a-textured-3d-scan-fr...](http://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/getting-a-
textured-3d-scan-from-just-a-webcam/)

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jimparkins
Maybe I am missing the point - but this style of 3d I have never really found
visually impressive or fun. I think it is because of the limited range of
movement on display. Half the fun of this kind of 3d would be to find things
initially hidden in the opening view. I can imagine my sun tilting his ipad to
see behind things. But the affect only shifts very slightly. I know that
masses more information would be needed for such an affect but to me at least
this is what this 3d hints at and why i guess ultimately i find it
disappointing.

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blt
You're disappointed because it's not magic or strong AI?

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cjcenizal
Imagine capturing footage on your phone/Glass and reviewing it on a large
display that tracks your head movements and adjusts the camera accordingly.

Think of the Minority Report scene when Cruise is watching pseudo-3D footage
of his family.

The history of media shows a trend towards 100% faithfully recreated
experiences. Photos > Film > Video w/ audio > 3D. This gets us one step
closer.

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thomasfl
This looks like it could be used as a replacement for 3d laser scanner.

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rorrr2
It turns a series of photos into a 3D model, which has been done to death.

Autodesk 123D (which is free) can create a 3D model from just two photos.

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makos
Yes, very similar. However there is still room for improvement. Maybe Disney
found a solution to make cleaner models, leading to a 3d-print ready solution.
With 123D you need to spend time on cleaning the mesh.

ps. this seems to be an open source version of 123D
[http://insight3d.sourceforge.net/](http://insight3d.sourceforge.net/)
Interesting, but havent used it yet

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matthiasv
Gahh! 9 out of 10 times, software made in academia has cool features but awful
code/structure/packaging/younameit. In this case, the Linux (!) tarball
contains Windows binaries and a handwritten Makefile that is not able to
compile even the first source file. What a pity.

