A Clever Interface That Transforms 2D Photo Subjects Into 3D Animations That Can Walk Off the Image

Researchers Chung-Yi Weng, Brian Curless and Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman from the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington have created “Photo Wake Up”, a very clever interface that creates the ability for a single 2D human subject within a photo to become 3D animated with an ability to stand, walk and run outwards away from the photo’s background. This remarkable project can be also be viewed in augmented reality.

Given a single photo as input, we create a 3D animatable version of the subject, which can now walk towards the viewer. The 3D result can be experienced in augmented reality; …Further, we present an interactive interface that allows re-posing the person in 3D, and an augmented reality setup where the animated 3D person can emerge from the photo into the real world. We demonstrate the method on photos, posters, and art..

via Digital Trends, The Awesomer