Software engineer Ma Wan-chun (馬萬鈞) and a team based at the University of Southern California (USC) were acknowledged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their face-digitizing technology, which has been advancing visual effects for a decade.
Ma, who now works as an engineer for Google, on Feb. 9 was awarded the Scientific and Technical Achievement Award along with his colleagues at the 91st Academy Awards for their computer graphics technology developed at the university’s Institute for Creative Technologies.
Their polarized spherical gradient illumination technology is a facial appearance capture method that uses a dome-shaped object called “Light Stage X,” Google said.
When an actor performs inside Light Stage X, they are illuminated by about 300 LEDs and their gestures are captured by cameras from different angles.
The footage is converted into a 3D model that is then used for visual effects, enabling the computer to understand the geometry, pore texture and light properties of the actor’s face, Google said.
Ma said that the technology, which can generate lifelike facial expressions, has transformed the movie industry.
For example, it created an older version of Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), brought the Na’vi tribe to the screen in Avatar (2009) and recreated Paul Walker’s performance in Furious 7 (2015) after the actor passed away mid-production.
Ma said that he has always been fascinated by visual effects in movies and video games, such as the diverse alien characters in the Star Wars movie series and the combination of real actors and animated backgrounds in the 1994 game Wing Commander 3.
As the field of computer graphics is still in its infancy in Taiwan, the Graduate Student Study Abroad Program of the National Science Council helped him pursue his studies, Ma said.
Under the program, he went to USC, where his faculty adviser, Paul Debevec, brought Ma into his research team in 2005 to help develop the facial capture system.
Ma said that instead of only researching for his doctoral dissertation, he always wanted to put his expertise into practice, and the work at USC helped him “turn imagination into reality.”
The team’s next step is to transfer the realistic visual effects presented in theaters to smartphones by applying the technology to the fields of augmented reality and virtual reality, Ma said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
RSS