Over/under exposed images/videos

[linx05]

The folks over at Microsoft Research have developed a series of algorithms and tools to 'fix/patch' for a lack of a better word parts of an image that have been over-exposed & under-exposed.

We introduce high dynamic range image hallucination for adding high dynamic range details to the over-exposed and under-exposed regions of a low dynamic range image. Our method is based on a simple assumption: there exist high quality patches in the image with similar textures as the regions that are over or under exposed. Hence, we can add high dynamic range details to a region by simply transferring texture details from another patch that may be under different illumination levels.

Original Post (http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=11&showentry=871)
Video Clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j2AaaYJhQI)
Research paper from Microsoft (http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?0rc=p&type=technical+report&id=1280)

Is this a first or are there tools that can do this already? Needless to say, it looks very interesting.

[HyperHacker]

Uh, wow. o_o

[sysKin]

I like the kind of ridiculous trickery that works :)

[linx05]

Rediculous trickery? How do you mean?

[sysKin]

Rediculous trickery? How do you mean?

Well it's assuming that you can copy the details (or texture) from other (non-overexposed) parts into the overexposed parts and it will still be OK. So if part of a picture is a human face and one is overexposed sky, it copies face into the sky, to "recover" sky's details.

Perhaps it's more complex than that, but that's the idea.

I call that ridiculous. Such ridiculousness is not uncommon and I like it when such ideas work.

[HyperHacker]

This could have more uses than they mention. Effectively it's rebuilding missing parts of an image, so you could use it for some other purposes:
-Remove junk added to the image, or things in front of the subject
-Expand the image

Come to think of it I saw a demo a while ago of a program that could remove people from photos, and rebuild the background behind them. I bet it works quite similarly.

[joseph5]

This could have more uses than they mention. Effectively it's rebuilding missing parts of an image, so you could use it for some other purposes:
-Remove junk added to the image, or things in front of the subject
-Expand the image

Come to think of it I saw a demo a while ago of a program that could remove people from photos, and rebuild the background behind them. I bet it works quite similarly.
All that can be done with The Gimp and Photoshop.

[HyperHacker]

Yes, but it requires effort with current tools. ;)