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Research at the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) since 1997 created methods for reconstructing a three-dimensional (3D) model of an object from a single two-dimensional photograph. Metail, a company founded in 2008, sponsored further research at the DoEng and commercialised the results in an online fashion retailing application. Metail enables customers to select an item of clothing and see how they would look wearing it from a variety of angles, having entered just one photograph of themselves and a few basic body measurements. Metail attracted over GBP3.5M investment. Its application is used by Shop Direct, Tesco, Warehouse, Zalando and Dafiti. Sales data shows that the Metail application increases the propensity of customers to buy and reduces the proportion of goods returned.
The introduction of computer vision algorithms that allow creation of stereo 3D content in film and broadcast using conventional 2D monocular video cameras has permitted fundamental advances in the 3D reconstruction of complex real-world dynamic scenes from video, enabling the rendering of stereo views from a single camera view. Technology introduced by Surrey has been used for 3D scene analysis by the UK company, The Foundry, in their film post-production for major Hollywood 3D film productions (Avatar, Harry Potter, Planet of the Apes, Tron, The Hobbit). Since 2007, The Foundry has transformed to become the leading provider of 3D stereo production software tools to the global visual effects industry, growing from 20 to over 200 employees.
UCL's pioneering use of 3D body surface scanning and national anthropometric surveys has had impact in the fashion industry and healthcare. In 2008, a UCL spinout, Sizemic, was founded to sell clothing size charts and fit mannequins based on the UK survey data, helping manufacturers and retailers improve the fit of their clothing, and reduce their product development times and costs. Sizemic now has 10 employees and a turnover of £1m. The research also led to other national sizing surveys, including in Germany (2008/9), Thailand (2009/10) and Mexico (2010), with results used for product development. In 2009, UCL built a prototype 3D-healthcare system for GPs and established a company, ShapeDynamics, to support the platform. The software is being tested at a private healthcare practice in London. Another UCL spinout, Bodymetrics, has commercialised body scanners for use as a clothes-fitting aid in stores.
The Boujou special effects software was developed from research carried out at the Department of Engineering Science. It enables sophisticated computer generated imagery (CGI) to be quickly and easily added to `real' film footage, facilitating the visual effects that feature so importantly in films such as Harry Potter and X-Men. The software has become an essential tool used by film-makers, TV advert producers, and video game manufacturers, and for instance played a pivotal role in helping `The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' win the 2009 Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Between 2008 and 2013, sales of Boujou totalled £1.37 million and this software boosted productivity and profitability right across the global digital entertainment industry.
Research at the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering on computer vision tracking led to the creation of Extra Reality Limited in 2010, which was subsequently acquired by a new company called Zappar Limited in May 2011. Zappar employs 17 staff and had revenue of GBP612k in the financial year 2012/13, an increase of 35% on the previous year.
Over 50 different brands have used Zappar's augmented reality application across more than 300 offerings in over 17 countries to deliver entertainment-based marketing interactions from 2011 to 2013. [text removed for publication] Examples of partners include Disney, Warner Brothers and Marvel. Zappar has changed attitudes in the media sector by showing that "augmented reality is finally ready for prime time" (President, Creative Strategies Inc, Time Online, 2012).
Research at the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) has enabled accurate positioning to be added to 2D freehand ultrasound probes to enable the acquisition of large coherent blocks of high-resolution 3D ultrasound image data. The software code base developed in the DoEng was licensed to two separate companies, Schallware and MedaPhor, to enable them each to develop an ultrasound training product. Both companies have sold to more than 30 customers worldwide during the REF impact period; the Cambridge software had a key role in contributing to the innovation and quality of the products developed by both companies, and significantly increased the speed at which they were able to bring these products to market.
HWUCS Texture Laboratory research since 1995 has developed techniques to capture 3D surfaces via stereo scanning, resulting in capability for fast, accurate capture in a way that supports realistic rendering. In 2007 the Texture Lab installed its texture capture system at IKEA, Sweden. Since then it has been used continually to amass a digital library of over 5,000 materials for generating sales imagery, and is behind 30% of room-set and 75-80% of single product shots in ~1.5Bn IKEA catalogues printed 2008--2013, in addition to online content. Meanwhile IKEA's r 3D graphics team has grown from 3 to 50.
This case study involves the development and implementation of novel algorithms that control the mapping of depth from a scene being imaged by a camera to an image being viewed on a stereoscopic display so as to make viewing more comfortable for the human visual system. The algorithms, developed at Durham University between 2003 and 2005:
Phase unwrapping is an essential algorithmic step in any measurement system or sensor that seeks to determine continuous phase. Instances of such devices are widespread: e.g. image reconstruction in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), synthetic aperture radar (SAR) by satellite systems, analysis of seismic data in geophysics and optical instrumentation, to name but a few. Without successfully solving the phase unwrapping problem these instruments cannot function.
The topic is well developed and competition among algorithms is fierce. In 2012 alone, some 235 papers, most of which were describing potential new algorithms, were published in the area. But the continuing need for high-speed, automated and robust unwrapping algorithms poses a major limitation on the employability of phase measuring systems.
Working originally within the context of structured light 3D measurement systems, our research has developed new phase image unwrapping algorithms that constitute significance advances in speed, automation and robustness. The work has led to adoption by industry, as well as use in commercial and government research centres around the globe. Our approach since 2010 has been to make these algorithms freely available to end users. Third parties have gone on to translate our algorithms into other languages, widely used numerical software libraries have incorporated the algorithms and there are high profile industrial users.
Research in biometrics carried out at Surrey since 1995 has generated IP relating to a number of aspects of automatic face recognition, which resulted in significant performance improvement, rendering this biometric technology commercially exploitable.
The advances made at Surrey include illumination invariant imaging, face detection/localisation using robust correlation, innovative face skin texture representation using a multiscale local binary pattern descriptor, a patented (and exceptionally compact) person specific discriminant analysis, facial component based matching, and patented multi-algorithmic fusion.
Through an IP agreement, these innovations have been commercially exploited by the University spinout company OmniPerception, which has developed products for various security applications.