Photo manipulation has made enormous strides since everybody got a computer and made securing Photoshop their first order of business. Now, we can control, manipulate, and tweak photos… but only on a two-dimensional plane. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon are going to change that.
The software is actually quite simple, in the abstract. It uses publicly available 3D models to isolate and change elements in the photo, essentially meaning you can grab anything you have a model for and rotate it in three-dimensional space, filling in the details as you go. Essentially it turns a 2D photograph into a 3D sandbox. Well, provided you have the 3D model you need.
And, yes, you can try this out now: Here’s the code, designed for OSX Mavericks. It’s definitely just a demonstration; you won’t be able to quite pull off the stunts you see in the video, and if you know what to look for, you can definitely see that the image is altered. But still, it’s strange to think that you can essentially, and almost seamlessly, completely alter a photograph in three-dimensional space.
Of course, there are some issues this raises. This software will, as it inevitably heads to market, mean that photographs are even less trustworthy than they are now. Still, it’s a stunning achievement, and a little glimpse of the future.