Recent research papers show the continued growth of AI tools in image manipulation, allowing users to easily change image elements by simply dragging them. The Verge says that while it’s limited to research papers at the moment, the system works very well.
It may not sound groundbreaking at first, but a closer look at the examples reveals the amazing potential of this system.
The system goes beyond basic mods, allowing users to click and drag to change the dimensions of a car, change facial expressions from smiling to frowning, and even change the orientation of the face to create a 3D image of the subject in the photo. You can also rotate it like a model. One demo also shows users adjusting the reflection of a lake or the height of a mountain range with just a few clicks.
These videos originated from the research team’s homepage, but the heavy traffic generated by Twitter users caused the crash.
According to the team behind it, it’s not just the image manipulation itself that sets this piece apart, but the user interface. AI tools such as GANs have enabled the generation of realistic images for some time, but they often lacked flexibility and accuracy. For example, if you ask an AI image generator to generate a photo of a lion roaming the savannah, it might generate a lion, but not necessarily in the pose you want.
The DragGAN model addresses this issue by providing a clear solution. Its interface resembles traditional image warping techniques, but the model regenerates the subject rather than smearing existing pixels. The researchers highlight that their approach can even hallucinate obstructive contents, such as teeth in a lion’s mouth, or precisely deform objects, such as the bending of a horse’s leg, according to their stiffness. are doing.
While this is still a demo and a full evaluation of the technology, such as the realism of final images based on low-resolution video, is not possible at this time, it is another example of how image manipulation can become more accessible and sophisticated. It serves as an example.
