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AI removes unwanted objects from photos to give a clearer view

By Chris Stokel-Walker

28 August 2020

tigers

A new AI tool can remove unwanted objects from photos

Xue, Tianfan, Michael Rubinstein, Ce Liu, and William T. Freeman. “A computational approach for obstruction-free photography.” ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 34, no. 4 (2015): 1-11.

An image or video can be spoiled if there is a distracting object in the foreground, but a new artificial intelligence tool can help by digitally removing the unwanted obstruction. The AI can take out fences, raindrops and reflections in a window, and it might eventually be available on smartphones. The idea came to Jia-Bin Huang at Virginia Tech University when he visited a…

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