What is 'Diminished Reality' Technology?

Is reality catching up with Michael Crichton's fertile imagination?

Courtesy: library.thinkquest.orgI

(CHICAGO) - The late author, Michael Crichton, often wrote about how science and technology would affect culture and humans in his novels. In his story "Rising Sun" the late novelist foresaw the technology of software manipulation of digital video records.

His plot revolved around a murder investigation of a statuesque blonde who was the mistress of a powerful Japanese executive in Los Angeles. The security video record seems to implicate the murder suspect, but further digging reveals that the actual killer used high tech methods to digitally erase his image, thus effectively making himself invisible.

Rising Sun is a 1992 internationally best-selling novel by Michael Crichton about a murder in the Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a fictional Japanese corporation.

Now reality has caught up once again with Crichton's fertile imagination. And this time, the real world has done the brilliant author's scenario one better.

"Diminished reality"—the ability to make objects disappear from real-time video—has arrived.

What began several years ago with the digital manipulation of video images—called "augmented reality"—has evolved into the jaw-dropping ability to simply erase objects from a live video stream.

Seeing is believing…or in this case perhaps, not seeing is believing. Therefore review this astounding video to see the results of the process.

Now you see it, now you don't. Click here.

Have you reviewed the video? Good.

You'll note that the objects selected for removal (a mobile phone, stapler and other objects) are still there. The software has just effectively blocked the video camera from detecting them. If the point of view of the video camera is moved, the objects are still not detected.

It's a slick digitally manipulated invisibility.

A virtual worlds and digital games research team at the Technical University of Ilmenau in Germany has dubbed the process a "Diminishing Reality System."

Here's how they work the magic:

The manipulator starts by digitally drawing a circle around the object selected to vanish. Then a special image synthesizer takes over. It busily reduces the pixels of the image until it virtually disappears, enhances the background field, re-enhances the region at 40 milliseconds per frame and employs sophisticated real-time tracking algorithms allowing the camera to move around the 3D object while maintaining its invisibility.

Applications are almost limitless. Besides unique gaming uses, the technology may also have military, artistic and novelty applications.

Currently, the Diminishing Reality System works only with a Windows operating system, but the developers intend to make it available through Android in the near future. After that it will probably be free for non-commercial use.

Back in the world of fiction, H. G. Wells' invisible man had to drink a concoction of noxious chemicals to become invisible. The 21st Century version is much cleaner, safer and faster.

Links

Technical University of Ilmenau announcing the process (German)

Article: "Reality Enhance Software removes objects"

Terrence Aym is a Salem-News.com Contributor based in Chicago, who is well known nationally for his stirring reports on the top ranked site, helium.com. Born in Minnesota, Terrence Aym grew up in the Chicagoland suburbs. Having traveled to 40 of the 50 states and lived in 7 of them, Aym is no stranger to travel. He's also spent time in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Western Africa. An executive for many years with Wall Street broker-dealer firms, Aym has also had a life-long interest in science, technology, the arts, philosophy and history. If it's still possible to be a 'Renaissance man' in the 21st Century, Aym is working hard to be one.

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