Real-Time Gradient-Domain Painting

The following research is done by James McCann and Nancy S. Pollard. Real-time Gradient-domain Painting, ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH 2008), August 2008, Vol 27. No. 3.

Abstract

We present an image editing program which allows artists to paint in the gradient domain with real-time feedback on megapixel-sized images. Along with a pedestrian, though powerful, gradient-painting brush and gradient-clone tool, we introduce an edge brush designed for edge selection and replay. These brushes, coupled with special blending modes, allow users to accomplish global lighting and contrast adjustments using only local image manipulations -- e.g. strengthening a given edge or removing a shadow boundary. Such operations would be tedious in a conventional intensity-based paint program and hard for users to get right in the gradient domain without real-time feedback. The core of our paint program is a simple-to-implement GPU multigrid method which allows integration of megapixel-sized full-color gradient fields at over 20 frames per second on modest hardware. By way of evaluation, we present example images produced with our program and characterize the iteration time and convergence rate of our integration method.



Portraits sketched by M. Mahler using Gradient-Domain Painting Program

Link to website
Link to PDF research paper
Link to video

Refing the HDR imaging technique

My friend Brian asked me to take Christmas pictures of his family to send out to their relatives. I thank God for providing such a beautiful day at Salt Creek Beach!

Good times with my bro at Salt Creek Beach

Winter is favorite time of the year in California - some of the only times of the year you will actually see cloud formations in the sky, a wonderful break from the boring blue haze.

How sweet it is! It's CandyFAB!

I have been following this project for some time now. It is exciting to see how many people have come together to contribute on this open source project!

Link to website
Link to PDF

Powerfully Simple - IdeaPaint

I ran across this product and had to include it in the inspirational blog somewhere. This is such a great example of a well executed simple idea. Inspired product + well designed execution = success!

Link to website

Unique MCPC business concept - Writing on the wall

I love new business concepts that are structured with the intent for customization and personalization. When created from the ground up, these well designed "toolkits" are the future of business.

Here is a great example of a well executed simple concept making a mark in the world of Mass Customization and Personalization (MCPC).

Link to Wonderful Graffiti

Sketch Furniture by FRONT

Not sure how comfortable this would be, but conceptually an awesome concept in designing straight from the fluid imagination.

excerpt from Front's website:

Is it possible to let a first sketch become an object, to design directly onto space?

The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialise free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined.
Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialised through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture.

Salvador Dabot -The Portraitist Robot

The Portraitist Robot recognizes human faces in its surroundings and extracts relevant characteristics from them. By using its uncanny artistic talent, it then draws portraits of the participants from the captured images by converting them into vector art and by using inverse kinematics to control the robot's arm.




You can find previous videos of the Portraitist Robot v1.0 here. Among the new features, the Portraitist Robot v2.0 has been patched with moustache and beret add-ons.