Remember the moving photos that appear in newspapers and magazines in the Harry Potter stories? A new technique may make it possible in real-life.
Japanese researchers have developed a new light projection technique that can bring static objects like photos and paintings to life.
The technique produces a visual experience wherein physically static objects appear to move, deform, or flutter.
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The method can add realistic motion impressions to photographs, paintings, and walls and produce visual experiences such as printed flames fluttering in the wind or a man in a portrait changing his expression.
Projection mapping (known as Shader Lamps), where a real object is overlaid with a projected image, is both costly and technically difficult to achieve, according to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation Communication Science Laboratories.
For this reason, the lab developed a new light projection technique which they call HenGenTou.
HenGenTou works by projecting a grey-scale pattern onto a static picture in the general shape of the part of the image that is required to be seen to change or move.
Movement is added to this light, which the human brain then interprets as a movement of the image underneath.
This illusory approach which preserves the real or existing image (as opposed to physically changing the appearance of the target), adds up to a system that requires less computation than standard projection mapping techniques and is therefore much cheaper, 'Gizmag' reported.
The technique can add a variety of dynamic impressions ranging from natural liquid flows to facial expressions to a printed image or other static materials.
The technique can be used in under bright ambient lighting conditions and the researchers said that it can also be applied to 3D objects, though it is a lot more difficult to achieve.
Practical applications for HenGenTou could be in areas such as advertising or interior design.
