Researchers aim to bring 3-D into the everyday

SMILE FOR THE CAMERAS: Researcher Patrice Delmas captures a 3-D image of student Minh Nguyen, using two cameras.

Three-dimensional fantasy flicks may be taking cinema audiences by storm this year, but a group of Auckland University researchers believe they are close to making 3-D production more affordable and accessible for budding entrepreneurs.

The Intelligent Vision System team is developing low-cost, real-time 3-D computer vision that is able to render images for a range of applications, including map-making, biometric security, augmented reality, forensics and video-game and film effects.

Augmented reality combines computer graphics and effects with real-life objects.

Associate professor Georgy Gimel'farb heads the team and has been working with stereo vision – the process by which computers create 3-D images – since he began his career in the Soviet Union in 1965.

He says 3-D vision was then mainly used for mapping terrain, but 45 years later, his team are working on applications that are pushing the boundaries of the technology that is available.

These include the rapid and real-time 3-D modelling of faces, and the reconstruction of indoor and outdoor scenery.

"This can be used for biometric security," says Dr Gimel'farb.

"It is very easy to mimic a picture, but very difficult to mimic a 3-D model of a face, which then makes it more reliable and secure.

"3-D reconstruction is also necessary, because augmented reality is the next step of computers in our lives.

"If you are sitting playing games, you're immersed in the world, so the next step is you'll be immersed in a 3-D world. Partially, it will be artificial; partially, it will be real."

Mimicking the processes of an eye is the hardest task of all for a computer and has traditionally involved huge processing power, says Dr Gimel'farb.

But senior lecturer and group founder Patrice Delmas says today's lower-quality cameras will still achieve good results at low cost, and the Invidia graphics cards used are common components in gaming computers.

Each student is working on a slightly different application of the 3-D technology, but together they are making progress towards a quicker, clearer and more detailed image, which can be used effectively in the real world.

"Take The Matrix movie. They tried to use computer vision for that – they had million-dollar systems and they spent tens of millions on correcting the images," says Dr Delmas.

"I think we could almost achieve as good as results as they had with just a few tens of thousands of dollars.

"3-D is not just a fashion. It's turning into people being able to gather their own footage. It is just a matter of time before embedded 3-D applications are in our home and everyday lives."

Dr Delmas believes it will be only 15 years before the next step – holographic images – will be commonplace.

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