ENHANCE!
12.18.09You ever notice how every law enforcement agency on TV and the movies is able to solve crimes by enhancing grainy footage? Of course you have, because it’s the one thing that every police computer can do that nobody’s personal computer can do. Well, that and find the states where I’m a sex offender. Whatever, I didn’t want to live in Alabama anyway.
That’s why this awesomely edited mash-up from dunk3d is one of the best things I’ve seen all week. The shows listed in the tags don’t even make a complete list of all the shows used in this clip, and it doesn’t even include the handful of movies that made the cut, as well.
There is, however, one glaring omission:
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/global/images/default-avatar.jpg){kind=avatar}
![[image]](http://cdn.wg.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2012/01/monster-makeup-syfy-face-off-fx-39-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.wg.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2011/12/portlandia-battlestar-1-150x150.jpg)
Man, imagine if zoom-and-enhance were a reality. It would do wonders for remote sensing! It’s absolutely hilarious to see the techies on TV shows (like NCIS, CSI, Law and Order SVU) zoom into grainy low-res images and enhance them into highly detailed, high definition images. It just doesn’t work that way!
well I can look back 4 days in the goddamn future!
Opie & Anthony played both of these videos on air today. They credited some other website for the initial video and then played the super troopers cut. that made it pretty obvious they got it from here. They are big fans of wwttd.com so they probably check this site too.
Then again Blade Runner took place in a distant future (even though it says 2019, ha) where cars fly and its possible to make robots that look exactly like people. These shows in the video have no excuse.
Listen to Graham:
Graham says: Let’s be honest… Blade Runner’s scene pioneered this scene
semi-related, but why does every fucking computer in hollywood run off of complicated keyboard commands and not a mouse? seriously, people type half a fucking paragraph to accomplish a simple task.
You need to enhance this website – ENHANCE IT, I SAY!!! No wait… stop. Zoom in right there… (__o__)
No joke, at school I was working in a computer lab, and this campus security dude came in with a recorded DVD from his cruiser camera. He says to me, “Hey, you got any software that can enhance this footage?”
It’s very possible to enhance video footage, it takes a lot of analyzing each frame and comparing it with others to find patterns and geometric points, which means a lot of processing time, so its not realtime like in the movies, but it is very possible, and there’s even filters for virtualdub that do it it, so yes, it can be done on your own personal computer.
With video or multiple images you can enhance a frame. Matlab is great for this.
http://www.mathworks.com/products/image/
http://www.astronomie.be/registax/
Zoom and enhance!! lol This kind of thing cracks me up. But who knows, maybe in a few decades we’ll be doing this for real.
@itsnotallhype
true…if an image has a high enough resolution then you can certainly zoom in and do other things to it, but a blurry image can’t suddenly be made clear just by hitting a button like all these shows seem to think
There’s also a scene in Malcolm in the Middle where Reese says enhance, and Malcolm pushes his brothers face closer to the screen! I’m waiting to use that sometime
My name is Nick Hance. I find this offensive! ;)
Let’s be honest… Blade Runner’s scene pioneered this scene.
While I agree that this stuff is 99% BS, there is a lot to be said for still and video analysis. Look at all that can be done with aerial and satellite imagery, from precise mensuration to 3D feature extraction to classification and materials analysis.
You CAN actually increase the effective resolution in motion imagery to make out finer details by using multiple frames. Get a grainy video of a license plate,and look at a still. You probably can’t read it. Run the video and your brain identifies the patterns and the plate becomes clear as day. (can sorta be done by computers)
“Enhance” totally works if you know what you are looking for AND have the right source material.
Ha! “The eigenvalues are off!!!” “ROTATE!”
He might be wearing a ring with an “alpha” symbol on it. From across a baseball stadium. From video footage already grainy even on those tiny monitors.
OK dude this looks like a lot of fun! I like it.
Jess
http://www.anonymous-web.cz.tc
You have to give FlashForward some credit in regard to this. It took their NSA weeks to try and enhance the image of the guy in the stadium and the best they get is that it looks like he might be wearing a ring.
Shnanigans? Are you talking about Shnanigans? Daaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhh!
‘High end production printing’?
It’s likely someone who works with printer/scanner/copier/binder from Xerox, Canon (or other photo/image manufacturer) with a touch screen linked to an optical storage system that is the size of a VW bus. Cost is usually in the mid-tens of thousands and are usually deployed in Aerospace and Defense industries. NOT the ones you see at Kinko’s (just sayin’) ; )
What about the new simpsons episode? Bart’s at a computer, and he says “zoom in! enhance!” And Lisa just….pushes his head toward the screen.
“I work in high end production printing”
Is that you guys at Kinko’s call yourselves.
And I’m guessing all CSI lab technicians are not as hot as Eva LaRue, eh?
I guess this is the graphic design/photo editor equivalent of working in IT. I cringe every time a movie/TV show starts talking tech.
Ugh.
As a graphic designer and photo editor this type of stuff is always entertaining. You would think that they would at least do a little bit of research. I mean in a bunch of the clips from above it seemed like they were just grabbing design terms out of a hat without regard to what they actually meant. Funny nonetheless. It’s true though, it seems like everyone with a blurry or pixelated picture wants it “enhanced.” The truth is there’s only so much that can be donce.
So how do we find this John Chimpo?
I’m so glad SOMEONE else noticed that, I watched this thing yesterday from start to finish waiting for the Super Troopers clip.
I work in high end production printing and this is bane of my existance. Clients brings me books with grainy screen caps and want high end publishing work. I even had one woman bring in black and white cover files and want color output. Stupid TV is dumbing down the world.