If You Thought Photoshop Was Good...

Researchers at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore presented image processing technology at Siggraph Asia that can create realistic photo composites from a simple sketch. The technology takes a users' rough-labeled drawing of a scene and compares its elements to objects extracted from photos on the Internet. These real-world snippets are then filtered, matched and synthesized Photoshop-style into a single image. And while results vary, they need to be seen to be believed.

Like Microsoft’s Photosynth, PhotoSketch (above) shows how advanced images processing and search algorithms can be used for more than just face-matching and sorting through surveillance footage. For instance, they can also be used to create a photograph of a cheetah chasing a Motocross racer through the desert (skip to 0:14).

No wonder the site seems to be loading awfully slowly and has been down this morning. Sure it's being flooded with those in disbelief.

Photosynthing Entire Cities

I have written about Mirosoft's Photosynth before. It's a technology that takes collections of single still image photographs and mashes them together in remarkable ways. From overlapping photos, the 3D structure of an object or building emerges.

Recently, folks used Photosynth to create create a truely amazing view of Obama innauguration.

Now, it is being used to model entire cities!

MS Clippy is Dead...Long Live Laura

No, Laura isn't actually a human being, but she's more life-like than Clippy, the annoying Microsoft Office 97 digital assistant.

Fast forward more than ten years from Clippy's birth to that of Laura, a virtual assistant that rather than help correct grammatical errors, write a letter or navigate the Microsoft Office UI, helps to schedule travel reservations and book movie tickets. She even recognizes your attire and knows if you're engaged in a conversation so as to not interrupt -- quite the improvement from Clippy if you ask me,

Unfortunately, Laura has yet to come in other shapes or sizes.