Revolutionising photo editing: interactive point manipulation with DragGAN
I wanted to share something exciting that I recently stumbled upon in the realm of generative AI - a new development called DragGAN.
Hopefully you're familiar with GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks), but let's take a quick refresher. GANs are a type of AI system that are used to generate new content, like images, that resemble a given set of training data.
For instance, if you feed a GAN a bunch of pictures of dogs, it can learn the patterns and characteristics of these images and then produce new images that look like believable dogs, even though they're entirely generated by the AI.
Some famous examples of GAN systems are ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com or the highly discussed deep fake technologies.
DragGAN
Now, researchers have taken the capabilities of GANs a step further, introducing a more interactive and user-friendly way of controlling and manipulating these images, named DragGAN.
What makes DragGAN remarkable is that it lets us "drag" any point of an image to achieve a specific effect, be it changing the pose of a figure, altering the shape of an object, or even modifying the layout of a scene. It's a huge leap from previous methods that were often a struggle to balance precision, flexibility, and general applicability.
Handle points and the point tracking system
The technology operates using two key parts. The first is a feature-based motion supervision mechanism, which guides a selected point of an image (called a "handle point") to move in a controlled manner towards a target position.
The second component is a unique point tracking system, which monitors the position of these handle points as they're manipulated.
The brilliance of DragGAN lies in its precision. It allows easy control over the manipulation of an image, ensuring realistic outcomes even when we get creative.
Plus, it's capable of handling trickier scenarios, like revealing hidden parts of an image or adjusting shapes while maintaining an object's rigidity.
A research example
Real world usage
Comparative tests against previous methods show that DragGAN excels in image manipulation and point tracking. Perhaps most excitingly for our line of work, DragGAN isn't just limited to AI-generated images - it can also manipulate real images, significantly broadening its potential applications.
Currently it is still in a closed beta. But the development team announced they will be sharing the code in a few weeks. Paving the way for open source development.
Considering our field, the implications are promising. From crafting more personalised visuals for campaigns to adjusting elements of brand imagery, this technology could be a considerable asset. It's a fascinating development and certainly worth exploring for our future projects.
Hope this information proves useful and sparks some ideas.