How often have you had a great photo-op ruined by there being a window in-between you and your subject resulting in reflections in your shot? So far there’s just no easy way to fix that in post-production, but researchers at MIT, led by YiChang Shih, have developed an algorithm that can extract and automatically remove reflections in an image.
There is a catch, though. The algorithm that Shih developed, while completing his PhD in computer science at MIT, relies on the window producing the reflection to be double-paned, or very, very thick. Why is that important? A double-pane window actually ends up producing two slightly offset reflections that Shih’s algorithm can use to extract what parts of the image are an unwanted reflection, and subsequently apply corrections to remove it. The technique works with thicker windows as well because of the distance between the outer and inner surfaces of the glass that also produce two misaligned reflections.
via Gizmodo
Image: MIT
