Turning video clips to still images (images)

Microsoft researchers have come up with some pretty neat tricks for turning rather so-so video clips into some pretty decent still images. Here's a look.

Ina Fried

May 10, 2010 11:17 a.m. PT

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Hazy Mount Rainier

This is a typical hazy image of Washington's Mount Rainier. However, Microsoft researchers have found a pretty unique way to cut through the fog.

At this week's TechFair in Mountain View, Calif., Microsoft researcher Neel Joshi showed a technique that uses video clips and burst-mode photography to create surprisingly sharp still images and panoramas from a blurry source.

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A little less hazy, but now grainy

This is what a typical photo-editing program might be able to do to remove the fog from a hazy image of Mount Rainier.

Click on the next photo to see what Microsoft Research was able to do using a video clip of that same hazy view.

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Much clearer

By using just a short video clip of the hazy mountain, researchers were able to come up with a surprisingly sharp image.

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ready to jump

Capturing moments like jumping off a cliff can be difficult, making one more likely to take a video instead.

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Using video to capture the moment

Researchers show how a pretty dramatic still of the jump can be created using the video.

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Microsoft's Building 99

This panorama of Building 99, home to Microsoft Research, was created from a rather wobbly video pan of the building.

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Cranes?

These cranes are hard to see in the still image.

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That's more like it

However, the cranes and the background come into better view when the image is de-hazed and de-noised from a variety of frames taken out of a video.

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Seattle, through the fog

Here's a typical shot of downtown Seattle, fog and all. Click the next photo to see what Microsoft researchers were able to do to clear things up a bit.