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An algorithm that recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images

techcrunch.com

11–20 of 37 posts

Re: An algorithm that recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images

#11

Very interesting tech, though the article makes a piss poor job of explaining anything about how it works. Rendering surfaces is how literally 99.9% of 3D graphics work, not a "breakthrough" of any sorts.

It's inferring the depth of all the points on the surface, including those it can't see in the image. This isn't surface rendering, it's depth estimation.

Re: An algorithm that recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images

#12
I kind of got lost on the first sentence: "With a lifetime of observing the world informing our perceptions, we’re all pretty good at inferring the overall shape of something we only see from the side, or for a brief moment. Computers, however, are just plain bad at it."

I'm good at inferring the shape of something from a side view well enough that I can use it in some kludgy mental models, but down the page they're essentially asking the computer to look at something from the side and render a precise(ish) 3-D mechanical model of the object from memory. For example, I have what I think is a pretty good idea of what a Boeing 737 looks like, but if you asked me to draw it on a piece of paper it would look like a kinder gardener did it. What I'm good at is boiling down features and distinguishing a 737 from an Oscar Meyer wiener truck. Drawing a scale-accurate picture of it is a job for artists and savants.

Re: An algorithm that recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images

#13
post #8

I'm very excited about the potential for extracting voxel specific or procedural generated 3D objects from a low number of 2D images - primarily with a combination of Semantic Segmentation and some form of MVS. The results of papers like this and other similar ones are great progress.

Seems like Google Earth is doing this yeah?

for the 3D Google Earth views? It's photogrammetry from a 5 camera rig on a low flying plane

https://youtu.be/suo_aUTUpps?t=2m53s

Re: An algorithm that recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images

#15
Well I'm sorry but I think more is going on than the article describes.

For example the red pickup truck. There is no way the algorithm could create that model from that image only (depth of the trunk).

So my guess is that they use the tiny picture to search a database for similar pictures and then create a model with all that data.

Re: An algorithm that recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images

#17

I'm looking at the second example from the image in the article - the blue plane - and can't work out how the algorithm could possibly infer a second wing from that picture.

Maybe it involves machine learning also and it is able to tell that it's looking at an aeroplane?

Re: An algorithm that recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images

#18

I'm looking at the second example from the image in the article - the blue plane - and can't work out how the algorithm could possibly infer a second wing from that picture.

Presumably the neural network was trained on a dataset where all planes had two wings, so it will predict planes with two wings.

Re: An algorithm that recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images

#19
post #12

I kind of got lost on the first sentence: "With a lifetime of observing the world informing our perceptions, we’re all pretty good at inferring the overall shape of something we only see from the side, or for a brief moment. Computers, however, are just plain bad at it." I'm good at inferring the shape of something from a side view well enough that I can use it in some kludgy mental models, but down the page they're…

The computer's a savant at precise drawing, but the visualization isn't the interesting part. The interesting part is having the computer look at a 2D picture and come up with a "kludgy mental model" of the 3D shape represented by the picture. From the example images, it infers information more accurately than I would've expected.

Re: An algorithm that recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images

#20

Very interesting tech, though the article makes a piss poor job of explaining anything about how it works. Rendering surfaces is how literally 99.9% of 3D graphics work, not a "breakthrough" of any sorts.

99.9% of 3D graphics: "Computer, here's a definition of some 3D surfaces and their properties. Produce a 2D projection."

This: "Computer, here's a 2D projection. Infer the likely 3D data that would produce the projection."

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