Microsoft touches up video editing

Microsoft showed off a technology on Tuesday that could one day allow people to edit artifacts into video as easily as they do with digital photographs today.

The research technology, dubbed Unwrap Mosaic, was shown to do things like adding a mustache and rosy cheeks onto a person in a video. It works by sort of unwrapping a 3D object into a flat image that contains the whole object, in this case a face.

Microsoft demonstrated a video editing technology Tuesday that lets artifacts be edited into video, in this case facial hair, by adding them to a flattened three-dimensional image.

(Credit: Microsoft)

"What we've done is built away of patterning the essence of a video in a single pattern," said Andrew Fitzgibbon, who presented the technology Tuesday at the SIGGRAPH trade show in Los Angeles. The key to that technique is that unwrapped or flattened image."

The effect Microsoft demoed (see video here) is sort of like taking a Woolly Willy to a real person in a moving video. It's applications, of course, could be much broader than adding facial hair (though I have some friends that would probably pay good money just for that particular effect).

While there are plenty of techniques out there for changing colors in a video or other special effects, adding a full mustache, though, is tricky because although it exists in one place--the face--different parts of the face are visible at different times.

Here's the original unwrapped image, pre-facial hair.

(Credit: Microsoft)

In the movies, it's done by using a model of the face. But Fitzgibbon's team was looking to create a single tool that would work on multiple types of 3D objects.

It's still just a research project. Microsoft has released some of the underlying technology into the public domain. Fitzgibbon also hopes to put a user interface on top of the technology and make it available somehow to the public, though he declined to offer a timetable on that.

And this is a still of what the mustached man looks like in the edited video.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Fitzgibbon's paper is just one of several papers Microsoft is presenting at the show. Another, is a follow-up to Microsoft'sPhotoSynth technology, which creates three-dimensional views of an attraction by using lots and lots of still photographs. In the new paper, done by the creators of PhotoSynth, Microsoft talks about how to navigate in a 3D environment constructed from such photos.

For example, one could use the technology to see what the Pantheon looks like from the outside, then zoom in to go through the door, walk down a hall, move up close to see a certain sculpture, turn around, etc. Although this can be done with publicly available photos, say from Flickr, Microsoft said one can also add in personal photos to the mix.

[ewelch]

Um, yeah. Microsoft showing a new technology, but it's not working yet, so they show mockups?

Don't believe a word until they have a working product. (Note I didn't say properly-working product.)

[rapier1]

Did you bother going to the site or reading the paper? Of course, not because that would require actual work. It's soooo much easier to just tear down something you don't know anything about.

[t8]

When is Microsoft going to give up. They don't impress anyone.

[rapier1]

How is this not impressive? Its technology that lets you create a viable 2d map of a 3d object based on a 2d video. That, in and of itself, is pretty cool. Then they go onto to allow you to edit that map and have it re-applied to the video. While this is possible to do by hand its very labor intensive with no appreciable benefit over an automatic method. What's impressive is that they released the method into the public domain through publication in a peer-reviewed journal. That's seems pretty impressive to me.

[The_Decider]

See it impresses those with low standards, which is Microsofts market.

[mathcreative]

This is something adobe should have came up with.

[kojacked]

Yep. That's Microsoft. Soooo not innovative. Heck everyone knows that PhotoSynth was stolen from Apple. Just like they stole the mouse and the modern GUI from Apple too! (And don't give me that crap about Xerox inventing this stuff first. We all know they just make copiers. Get a clue people!)

I'm sure this latest innovation was stolen from some open source app. We all know how open source apps just rock the world with their innovation and are killing Apple with their superior UI. And Microsoft actually releasing technology to the public domain? Paleeeeze! We all know their just trying to lock people in! Once a monopoly, always a monopoly!*

Man I should have become a Microsoft hater a long time ago. It's sure fun writing baseless comments and sounding like an idiot to boot.

* "Once a monopoly, always a monopoly!", trademark 2008 - WhinersRUs, Inc.

[onlyauser]

funny

[a85]

@ ewelch - yeah because photosynth isn't working yet. Trying going to the website and checking it out before you start your stock anti-MS tirade.

[maverick_nick]

You Microsoft bashers simply demonstrate your lack of knowledge and intelligence. You people know nothing about open-source other than the fact that it's freely available. Seriously, how is your access to the code benefitting you? Well it's not, but as long as you're getting stuff free of charge, it's better than paying Microsoft, right?

So grow up and quit behaving like neanderthals, because you have to be an evolved human to appreciate Microsoft.

[codevalley]

I dnt understand, why people blindly hate Microsoft. Is this bcoz ppl get jealous of successful ppl? So will these ppl start hating google tomrow? Ironically most of these ppl wud be typing from their Windows, while they say MS is bad, and send anti-MS mails thru Outlook, composed in Word. I am not MS die hard fan. But, feels bad when ppl, simply take out their frustration on someone. What happened to RedHat ? which bloomed on the FREE, OPENSOURCE bubble?
It has stopped selling desktop (free) version of Linux, and "selling" only Enterprise Linux. But, you ppl dont see. Strange.
"Adobe should have done this".... I have no words for this comments.
http://www.thecodevalley.com

[TV James]

Yeah, serious, do you have nothing better to do than come on here and go "MS sucks. MS sucks." Been there, done that. It's not new, it's not fresh, it's not helpful or useful. You sound like my four-year-old. Or like she sounded three years ago when she only knew a handful words and could form only the simplest of sentences and went around repeating them over and over again. We get it. You think Microsoft sucks. There, I said it. From what I've heard about the culture and about the way they do business and the way they treat the non-blue-badges, there may be some truth to it, but you'll need to be more specific. A blanket statement shows ignorance just like any other stereotype or generalization about all people of a particular religion or about all people from a southern state or all people who use AOL. Hmm... scratch that last one.

Personally, this seems like an innovative take. Yeah, Microsoft Research takes a different route than Google which doesn't show off something until it's Alpha or Beta and they can put it into the hands of by-invite users, but can't you look past your Microsoft hatred and look at the underlying idea? Seems pretty novel to me.

All kinds of implications about whether the "camera doesn't lie" or not, but it sure looks intriguing.

[benjaminstraight]

Cool.

[rapier1]

One of the reasons why you see things like this coming out of MS before its fully baked is because MS actually publishes their research in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. They're actually doing real science and not just product development.

[cwiver]

I work for micosoft :) i'm sending you some love for not just being a sheep and following the Microsoft hates crowd. You actually understand that all these haters pull facts out of their ass and think that just because we're sucessful we must be evil. :)

[fdunn3]

I think it is a very good piece of research and hard work.

[The_Decider]

Too bad its use is very limited in real world ways.

As cool as it might look, *** is the point? Typical of MS, putting effort into a toy while ignoring real problems and real application needs.