Diminished Reality: The World is a cleaner, scarier place


I remember thinking that augmented reality was the neatest thing, and I have to admit that diminished reality is another cool development in real-time video alteration.

If you have never heard of diminished reality, it is technology developed by a team of researchers at Technische Universitat Ilmenau in Germany, and it is probably the antonym of augmented reality.

So what is it? Diminished reality is technology that can remove selected objects from video recordings, in real-time. I have a video of it after the jump so you can see it in action.

See in the picture how the stapler, phone, and other assorted office supplies just vanish from the desktop there? Now imagine the camera moving to the left and right, and those objects are still gone.

Believe it or not, it was as easy as circling this object on a screen, and then begin filming. There are a lot of examples of it on film, and you may notice that the area where things have been removed is slightly blurry, like a Romulan cloaking device.

I don’t know about you, but I am a little skeptical about technology that makes things invisible in real-time. I suppose that makes Live newscasts selective of what they can show, but that may not be a good thing. I don’t know why I always see new technology in a dystopian sense.

Source

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Change your bike’s gears, with your mind

Image
Lately, I have been teaching my son to ride a bicycle, and it reminds me of my days of awkward bike riding. I remember that I had a hard time with changing the gears, but what if I could do it with my mind? Parlee Cycles is apparently working on a concept bicycle made of carbon fiber that does just that. It is part of Toyota Prius Projects, and it uses a helmet equipped with neurotransmitters to read a wearer’s brainwaves. A wireless transmitter attached to the bike’s seat post gets the signal, and changes the gear. As you might of guessed, this is still a concept. In fact, the developer hasn’t quite got the brain control working and still using a smartphone for the controls. I have heard of neuro-controls being used before, but I am guessing the technology isn’t quite as good as Bluetooth. Still, I am wondering if putting a brain control on a bike’s gears is putting too much technology where it doesn’t belong. If we are going to electronically make a way for a
Read more

Wi-Fi Connected Power Strip

Image
If you are like me, you have “that desk” in your house that is sort of the hub for digital information. On the desk is a laptop or desktop computer, and all kinds of accessories. Chances are, all of these devices are plugged in to a power strip, and they are a source of great power consumption on your monthly electric bill. This power strip by Japan-based Ubiquitous is the iRemoTap, and it has a built-in Wi-Fi module. The purpose of the Wi-Fi is so it can send information to connected devices in the household. The iRemoTap can automatically send out some sort of message like an email or tweet so you know how much energy that you are consuming. In fact, you can program this thing for a preset level, so you can make energy goals and hopefully keep them. I guess you will have to know what levels your devices have, of course. I don’t really know that off the top of my head. So is this the wave of the future? All of us knowing how much power we consume and making
Read more

iMM514 ArtStation Pro

Image
I’ve seen some products from iLuv before, and the iMM514 ArtStation Pro is good for turning an iPad into a home theater. As you can see, the iPad is mounted in an articulated swiveling arm so you can position it at whatever angle you want, in landscape or portrait mode. In case you are wondering why there is such a big base, it is because it has a huge stereo speaker. In other words, this base has bass. There is also a wireless remote for volume and skipping tracks, and it looks like there are some controls on the base for when you lose the remote. As I mentioned before, iLuv has put out a lot of Apple accessories, and I will have to admit that this is one of the most unusual that I have seen. In fact, I am not even sure what kind of aesthetic that this is. The arm thing reminds me of Technic Lego pieces. I suppose the case is like a big Lego brick without and studs on it. Nice. By the way, this isn’t just for the iPad. The iMM514 ArtStation Pro is compatible
Read more