A group of students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated a ground-breaking system that allows a user realistically insert synthetic objects into legacy photographs quickly and easily.
The system requires that the user first annotate an image, pointing out light sources and object boundaries using software-based tools. Once an image in annotated, the system accurately renders synthetic objects placed ‘into’ the photograph, accounting for lighting, shading, reflection, illumination and other individual object properties like transparency, diffuse or specular.
The system has obvious applications in the movie and gaming industry, as well as interior design and user content creation. The video below speaks for itself,
