AI can turn a collection of 2D images into an explorable 3D world

An artificial intelligence algorithm can transform still images into a high-resolution, explorable 3D world, with potential implications for film effects and virtual reality. By feeding the neural network a selection of images of a scene and a rough 3D model of the scene created automatically using off-the-shelf software called COLMAP, it is able to accurately visualise what the scene would look like from any viewpoint. The neural network, developed by Darius Rückert and colleagues at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, is different to previous systems because it is able to extract physical properties from still images. "We can change the camera pose and therefore get a new view of the object," he says. The system could technically create an explorable 3D world from just two images, but it wouldn't be very accurate.