[Leica] A.I. Gigapixel

[Ken Iisaka]

I think it's a bit of a stretch to call it Artificial Intelligence, looking
at Paul's and others' images.

I think what it does it to take small segments of the original image, and
substitute then with ones with a higher resolution. The resultant
additional details are not from somehow realizing the details lost while
capturing, but are made-up details that gives an illusion of finer details.

My guess is that the developer collected a large number of images and their
down-sampled images, and created a mapping to substitute small segments of
the original image with a higher-resolution segments, collected earlier.

The diagonal cross-hatch patterns in the foreground trees in Paul's image
seem to, suggest that the substitution is done at 3x3 or 4x4 pixel units.
Perform the same with the segments shifted, then combine the 9 or 16
resultant images, apply some unsharp mask for edge contrast, and voilà.

While it may seem like magic, it just gives you an illusion of finer
details. Not real details.

I'd love to see this done on a newspaper, for example, and see how it goes
:)




On Thu, 30 Aug 2018 at 07:49, Paul Roark via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
wrote:

> At this point of experimenting with AI Gig, I'd have to say I'm impressed
> with the potential.  I will probably use it sometimes, but the damage it
> does in softening the wrong parts of the image take more work to fix than
> the benefits for the vast majority of images I have.  Putting the original
> (up-res'd with PS in "auto" mode) as a layer with the AI Gig-enhanced
> version, then selectively pulling info from that layer can fix most of the
> "mistakes" AI Gig makes, but it's time consuming.  I tried to just have PS
> merge the layers as in focus stacking.  The results were a rather random
> combination of the layers; probably not worth the time.
>
> I'd say the software needs some adjustments as to when and how much to
> smooth the image.
>
> So, bottom line, it's probably going to be a useful addition to my toolbox,
> but mostly where I needed a longer telephoto for the shot.
>
> I have not yet used it with high ISO images that have more noise.
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>
> On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 9:07 AM Tina Manley via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
> wrote:
>
> > I've been trying it out all day yesterday and today.  I have bought it.
> > I'm impressed but I cannot figure out why some photos take so long to
> > process and others don't. I did one this morning that took about 3
> minutes
> > and the next one (same size) has been grinding along for over half an
> hour!
> >
> > I'll post results if it ever finishes.  Original was made with Leica SL
> > ;-)  but I'm taking a tiny crop and blowing it way up.
> >
> > Tina
> >
> > On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 11:40 AM, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG <
> > lug at leica-users.org> wrote:
> >
> > > I have been playing around with the demo, I find it very good, and will
> > > probably buy it shortly.
> > > Cheers]
> > > Jayanand
> > >
> > > On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 8:37 PM, Paul Roark via LUG <
> lug at leica-users.org
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > This tool looks to have some substance.  For large prints or
> salvaging
> > a
> > > > small part of a frame, the quality of the up-res'd image is
> definitely
> > > > better than I've seen with any other approach.
> > > >
> > > > See http://paulroark.com/AI-Gigapixel-sample.JPG (also attached).
> > > >
> > > > Paul
> > > > www.PaulRoark.com
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Leica Users Group.
> > > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> > > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Leica Users Group.
> > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Tina Manley
> > www.tinamanley.com
> > tina-manley.artistwebsites.com
> > http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley
> > <
> >
> http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/3B49552F-90A0-4D0A-A11D-2175C937AA91/Tina+Manley.html
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Leica Users Group.
> > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
> --
> Ken Iisaka
> first name at last name dot org or com
>
>
>
>