Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Printing Gaussian Splats

patreon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–49 of 49 posts

Re: Printing Gaussian Splats

#41

Post by stevep98 »

Once in a while I get inspired by a post on HN, but I know I don't have the energy to follow it through. Here's my idea for anyone who thinks they can do something with it:

Imagine you are holding in your hand a small glassy sphere. Initially it looks like random dots inside, but as you play with it in your hands, you get glimpses of images of loved ones.

To implement this, select a bunch of photos of people, generate pseudo-3d models of their faces with your AI of choice. Position them around a sphere in a 3D modelling software, and generate a whole bunch of renderings all around the scene. Now, feed those renderings into gaussian splat software.

The resulting 3D gaussian splat should include relatively high fidelity when the viewer is aligned with the supplied iamges, but more stochastic nonsense when misaligned. This should contribute to the feeling of being able to 'find' images while rotating the sphere around.

Re: Printing Gaussian Splats

#42

Post by Karliss »

arjie wrote: post #10
pizzathyme wrote: post #5

Incredible. I may be the only one in the dark, but until this moment I had no idea 3D printing at this high a fidelity was possible. It looks like a real bee. Last I knew, the best 3D prints still looked like hardened play dough

It's different kinds of printers. That's a resin printer - pretty high-end one. I'm not getting that result on my Bambu P1S.

Calling it a resin printer is like calling a FDM printer and injection molding machines in the same category, both can melt ABS but the way they work and capabilities are completely different.

Same thing here hardly anything common with hobbyist resin printers beside using some kind of UV curable resin. And as with other 3d printing technologies Stratasys is decade ahead in terms of research and commercialization sitting on all the relevant patents and selling expensive machines (sometimes as a result of acquisition).

Once the patents ran out maybe there will be more advancements and general availability. Although I expect much longer delay compared to FDM and SLA/DLP 3d printers. Inkjet printing on paper is already complicated and finicky enough, It's not something a hobbyist can make from scratch in a garage. Add a resin which will by design solidify when exposed to light potential destroying the inkjet nozzles, and doesn't necessarily behave as regular ink when attempting to spray it through inkjet head and you get the need for some serious investment to recreate the technology even with patents expired. The recent hobbyist 2d UV printers are step in this direction, but commercial/industrial UV printers have existed for quite a while. To me this suggests there is additional gap in patents/technological challenges between textured 2d UV printers, and full 3d UV inkjet printing.

Re: Printing Gaussian Splats

#44

Post by corysama »

PashaGo wrote: post #43

Why it's called Gaussian?

The original paper that kicked off the movement a few years ago used Gaussian blobs because gaussians are differentiable and the tech to analyze a scene requires the tech used for rendering to be differentiable.

https://learnopencv.com/3d-gaussian-splatting/

Re: Printing Gaussian Splats

#45

Post by corysama »

GL26 wrote: post #30

Interesting how they voxelate the splat to print it. I am sure there are more efficient algorithms that allow you to make a mesh which then gets sliced before printing

But, if you made a mesh you wouldn’t be able to represent fuzzy objects. That’s one of the major advantages of both splats and this printing technique.

Re: Printing Gaussian Splats

#46

Post by lairv »

stevep98 wrote: post #41

Once in a while I get inspired by a post on HN, but I know I don't have the energy to follow it through. Here's my idea for anyone who thinks they can do something with it: Imagine you are holding in your hand a small glassy sphere. Initially it looks like random dots inside, but as you play with it in your hands, you get glimpses of images of loved ones. To implement this, select a bunch of photos of people, generat…

Not exactly what you describe but this project [0] did it with cubes.

The cube is filled with splats. Each face reveals a different picture when viewed from a perpendicular angle

[0] https://www.3dpoint.art/

Re: Printing Gaussian Splats

#47

Post by bobson381 »

stevep98 wrote: post #41

Once in a while I get inspired by a post on HN, but I know I don't have the energy to follow it through. Here's my idea for anyone who thinks they can do something with it: Imagine you are holding in your hand a small glassy sphere. Initially it looks like random dots inside, but as you play with it in your hands, you get glimpses of images of loved ones. To implement this, select a bunch of photos of people, generat…

if you allowed for some slippage in precision, how many images could you fit in that are recognizable from various angles, with ~acceptable~ resolution? Sounds fun.

Re: Printing Gaussian Splats

#48

Post by circuit10 »

KeplerBoy wrote: post #25

How much are the prints approximately? Can't see a price anywhere.

Trying a bunch of sizes in their studio tool (all cubes to make it easier):

5mm x 5mm x 5mm (smallest I can select): $32.58

10mm x 10mm x 10mm: $36.58

20mm x 20mm x 20mm: $82.86

30mm x 30mm x 30mm: $143.60

50mm x 50mm x 50mm: $509.14

100mm x 100mm x 100mm: $3,028.58

150mm x 150mm x 150mm: $9,618.86

195mm x 195mm x 195mm: $20,641.32

(it says it's an estimate excluding tax and shipping)

Re: Printing Gaussian Splats

#49

Post by motoroco »

circuit10 wrote: post #48
KeplerBoy wrote: post #25

How much are the prints approximately? Can't see a price anywhere.

Trying a bunch of sizes in their studio tool (all cubes to make it easier): 5mm x 5mm x 5mm (smallest I can select): $32.58 10mm x 10mm x 10mm: $36.58 20mm x 20mm x 20mm: $82.86 30mm x 30mm x 30mm: $143.60 50mm x 50mm x 50mm: $509.14 100mm x 100mm x 100mm: $3,028.58 150mm x 150mm x 150mm: $9,618.86 195mm x 195mm x 195mm: $20,641.32 (it says it's an estimate excluding tax and shipping)

It does not include shipping. I paid an extra $30 for shipping a 40mm cube. It’s the only reason I didn’t comment initially in support of an otherwise cool service
Post reply on HN