Some Eye-Popping Research From Siggraph 135
jamie found links to a discriminating selection of Siggraph papers at waxy.org. Among the more captivating: automatically improving the attractiveness of faces in portraits; automatic substitution of similar faces into photographs (with potential applications such as a privacy-enhanced Google Street View); and using still photographs to enhance video of a static scene.
Lists of Siggraph (and other) papers (Score:5, Informative)
I'd call this karmawhoring, but seeing as the editors didn't even bother linking to claimed list at 'waxy.org'... lists of Siggraph papers have been kept by Tim Rowley and Ke-Sen Huang for years. You can find this year's list at:
http://kesen.huang.googlepages.com/sig2008.html [googlepages.com]
And an overview of all years at:
http://kesen.huang.googlepages.com/ [googlepages.com]
This also includes lists of papers presented at other events such as Eurographics.
For even more fun, visit the papers' authors sites; they often also publish papers at seemingly unrelated events that contain some interesting computer graphics gems.
Re:So in summary (Score:2, Informative)
Careful inspection reveals that the woman's lips have been broadened, also.
Re:TLA definition, please? (Score:1, Informative)
but i've not been able (ok, only 2 googlesworth;-) to decode this 3 letter acronym: NPR
NPR stands for Non-Photorealistic Rendering
Re:real footage? (Score:1, Informative)
What kind of sniper misses, and doesn't take a second shot?
The good kind (would you stay put if you just gave your position away?).
Aside from that, you make an excellent point about the trustworthiness of "news" "footage."
Ever seen "Wag The Dog?"
Re:real footage? (Score:4, Informative)
What kind of sniper takes a shot and misses?
The kind that isn't a formal and TV depicted sniper. The kind that isn't a sniper at all.
Rather just some goon soldier or citizen with any old rifle from a fair distance away. Just becouse the media calls it a sniper, doesn't make it so.
Easy. (Score:5, Informative)
Making faces more attractive is easy. All you have to do to get a reasonable increase is to make them more symmetrical.
If you want yet another increase, there is a set of ratios for distances between features that uncannily applies to pretty much everyone who is widely considered attractive. Shift everything closer to those ratios, and you'll get a big improvement.
Want more? Fix skin blemishes.
Between the three of those, you can make incredible strides. I would highly encourage any interested to watch "The Human Face".
Re:FX Show Nip/Tuck said it best (Score:2, Informative)
"Beauty is Symmetry, and you have none"
One of the main characters in the plastic surgery show Nip/Tuck made that comment. It seems as if TFA applies said comment.
I found the beautification piece interesting, and yes, symmetry and proportion are very important. Bigger girls that are still in the right wast-hip ratio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waist-hip_ratio) are perceived as attractive, and the same goes for other body parts. The research in the article focuses on face symmetry, and some of the subtle before/after pictures are pretty amazing. I'll expect to see this marketed to the booming cosmetic surgery industry very quicklike.
Re:So in summary (Score:2, Informative)
Why is this moderated Troll?
More items from Siggraph... (Score:2, Informative)
A couple of items of interest displayed at Siggraph this year as well which I think have potential.
Microsoft's come up with a way of painting objects onto an object extracted from a video, then reinserted to the video that remains accurate when the camera angle's changed. Their research paper's called Unwrap Mosaics [microsoft.com], and you can see a video on Youtube here [youtube.com] (higher quality video on the reseach page).
A company called Image Metrics [imagemetrics.com] have made a video with actress Emily O'Brien [wikipedia.org], using Light Stage technology from USC's Institute of Creative Technologies [usc.edu] (an example of this is on a Google presentation called New Techniques for Rendering Human Performances [youtube.com]) to create a realistic animated virtual face, that has convinced an editor on VFXWorld that they've passed the uncanny valley. Article is here [vfxworld.com].
I've been thinking that it was only a matter of time until editing video would become similar to editing photos, I just though it would take a lot more time, but everything is already here. They can even create realistic hair [mit.edu] based on photos, just think what technology we'll have in the next decade, this could be in our homes by then.