Carnegie Melon: 3D Object Manipulation in a Single Photograph

What if the objects in your photo can come out to life? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon Robotic Institute and the University of California created a software that can manipulate 3D objects from a single photograph.

The software uses 3D models from online libraries to complete the shape of the parts not shown in the object. It can automatically adjust texture and lighting, and add details to the sides of the object, making it look natural. It can also manipulate images within historical photos, even paintings, and can animate objects within photos. The researchers published a paper about their findings. The software is open for anyone to download and use, with its source code also available for tinkering. 

We also recommend watching: "3-Sweep: Creating 3D Models from a Single Photo" and "Nikon xxArray: Capturing Photorealistic 3-D Models".

Carnegie Melon: 3D Object Manipulation in a Single Photograph

The Robotics Institute (RI) is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. It is considered the world leader in robotics research, it is the first robotics department at any US university. In 1988 CMU became the first university in the world offering a Ph.D. in Robotics.