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Nvidia Research Turns 2D Photos into 3D Scenes

blogs.nvidia.com

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Re: Nvidia Research Turns 2D Photos into 3D Scenes

#31

Post by baron816 »

It would be really great to recreate loved ones after they have past in some sort of digital space.

As I’ve gotten older, and my parents get older as well, I’ve been thinking more about what my life will be like in old age (and beyond too). I’ve also been thinking what I would want “heaven” to be. Eternal life doesn’t appeal to me much. Imagine living a quadrillion years. Even as a god, that would be miserable. That would be (by my rough estimate) the equivalent of 500 times the cumulative lifespans of all humans who have ever lived.

What I would really like is to see my parents and my beloved dog again, decades after they have past (along with any living ones at that time). Being able to see them and speak to them one last time at the end of my life before fading into eternal darkness would be how I would want to go.

Anyway, there’s a free startup idea for anyone—recreate loved ones in VR so people can see them again.

Re: Nvidia Research Turns 2D Photos into 3D Scenes

#32

Post by cinntaile »

krasin wrote: post #25
gundmc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah, this video is way more interesting than the Nvidia polaroid teaser in the original link.

Still, NVIDIA's achievement (and Thomas Müller in particular) is amazing. Thomas and his collaborators achieved an almost 1000x performance improvement, by a combination of algorithmical and implementation tricks. I highly recommend trying this at home: https://nvlabs.github.io/instant-ngp/ https://github.com/NVlabs/instant-ngp Very straightforward and gives better insight into what NeRF is than any shiny marketing d…

Waymo needed 2.8 million images to create that scene, I wonder how many Nvidia would need? Or was the focus only on speed? I skimmed the article and didn't really find info on that.

Re: Nvidia Research Turns 2D Photos into 3D Scenes

#33

Post by XorNot »

So the part which makes this interesting to me is the speed. My new desire in our video conferencing world these days has been to have my camera on but running a corrected model of myself so I can sustain apparently eye-contact without needing to look directly at the camera.

Re: Nvidia Research Turns 2D Photos into 3D Scenes

#34

Post by tomatowurst »

anyfactor wrote: post #14

Tangent I wonder what happens to most people when they see innovation such as this. Over the years I have seen numerous mind-blowing AI achievement, which essentially feel like miracles. Yet literally after an hour I forget what I even saw. I don't find these innovations to have a lasting impression on me or on the internet except for the times when these solutions are released to the public for tinkering and they en…

hmmm I really find this to be different from chatbots, in fact it took me a lot of skepticism to overcome before using github copilot and I saw a new reality where it became part of the process, albeit, not as prolific but enough to make me ponder what the next evolution might be.

For 3D modelers, this is huge since it takes a lot of experience and grunt work to put the right touches to get an even a boilerplate 3D model. So much so that many game companies have outsourced non-human 3d modeling, this would certainly impact those markets.

1) It could further lower the cost and improve quality.

2) Studios could move back those time-consuming tasks on-shore and put an experienced in house artist/modeler to manage the production.

3) Hybrid of both

What I see here is that NeRF has a far more impact to the 3d modeling/animating industry than github copilot. Another certainty is that we are going to see faster rate innovation. We are at a point where a paper released merely months ago are being completely outpaced by another. The improvement in training time that NeRF offers is insane, especially given how quickly this new approach came out.

We could be at a future where the release of AI achievements will not be able to keep up with published works. It would be as fast as somebody tweeting a new technique, only to be outdone by somebody weeks or possibly days.

Truly exciting times.

Re: Nvidia Research Turns 2D Photos into 3D Scenes

#35

Post by noduerme »

krasin wrote: post #7
woah wrote: post #4

Are there examples of this being used on large outdoor spaces?

Yes, Waymo did the whole San Francisco block: https://waymo.com/research/block-nerf/

There's something very uncanny-valley about that video. I can't decide if it's the smoothness of the shading on the textures or if it's the way the parallax perspective on the buildings sometimes is just a tiny bit off. I don't generally get motion sickness from VR but I feel like this would cause it.

Re: Nvidia Research Turns 2D Photos into 3D Scenes

#37

Post by noduerme »

sennight wrote: post #18

I know that taste in comedy is seasonal (yes, there were a people in a time that thought vaudeville was the cat's pajamas), but has anyone ever greeted a pun with anything other than a pained sigh?

It's ones like this that make me shake my head and go "Aiaiai."

Re: Nvidia Research Turns 2D Photos into 3D Scenes

#40

Post by rilezg »

anyfactor wrote: post #14

Tangent I wonder what happens to most people when they see innovation such as this. Over the years I have seen numerous mind-blowing AI achievement, which essentially feel like miracles. Yet literally after an hour I forget what I even saw. I don't find these innovations to have a lasting impression on me or on the internet except for the times when these solutions are released to the public for tinkering and they en…

I think with any tech demo (or other corporate PR piece), it is good to assume the worst, because companies spin things to be as ducky as possible. This is a self-reinforcing cycle, because if two companies have identical products, then the best liar--er, marketer--will win.

(not to say this sort of behavior is exclusive to corporate PR. as the best and smartest person ever, I would never need to exaggerate my achievements on a job application, but others may)

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