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Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Software Photoshops Any Image You Want

A research project converts crude sketches into photorealistic scenes using Internet photographs.
By Will Knight

This video shows software that can turn crude sketches into remarkably slick Photoshoped images by stitching together photographs grabbed from the Internet.

The software, called PhotoSketch, was created by students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore in China. It will be demoed in December at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009.

To use PhotoSketch, a user simply sketches a scene, using blobs to represent different components, with descriptive tags added to each blob. The software uses the tags to search for potentially suitable images on the Internet. It then tries to match the components within those images with those in the sketch and with a background before presenting the user with a selection of snaps that go together nicely. The video also includes a nice explanation of the technology. The resulting images are often very realistically Photoshopped.

Comments

  • Most cool!
    I'd really like to give this a try. Not only clever, but could be very useful for illustrating the sort of educational articles I write.

    One foreseeable problem could be legal: the rights to the images.
    Rate this comment: 12345

    dtutelman
    10/07/2009
    Posts:57
    Avg Rating:
    4/5
    • very cool!
      When I think the world is going to he** in a handbasket, I check out incredible things coming down the pike as reported by MIT's Tech Review and have faith in the world again. ... no offense, but, I sure wish we saw as numerous innovations by Americans.
      Rate this comment: 12345

      ronaldoport
      10/07/2009
      Posts:2
      Avg Rating:
      5/5
  • Any image you want
    The first writer was exactly correct about using just any image from the Internet.  There are copyright problems... China does not worry about copyrights and has been known to republish well known handbooks, etc. without recognizing the owner of the copyright.

    However, if I could get the software and have it search my collection of pictures, this would be a workable situation.

    Charlie Richmond
    Rate this comment: 12345

    crichmcc
    10/07/2009
    Posts:4
    Avg Rating:
    5/5
  • great CS, dangerous implications
    I agree that this technology is impressive, and even inspirational.  It marks another step, however, towards a world where we can no longer trust images as visual evidence.  This has dangerous implications for digital and printed news-media.
    Rate this comment: 12345

    whitfield.fo...
    10/07/2009
    Posts:1
    Avg Rating:
    5/5
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