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Ever see on thouighs tv shows where they take a picture and blow it up ans
digitally enhance it so a small picture becomes crystal clear like when they
are looking for a liscence plate number from a satelite? I have some small
pictures that when I enlarg them they become grainy and big pixils. Whats a
good program out their that can help me do what they show on the tv shows.
Enhance and clear up the pictures and digitaly enhance it?

Hugh

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:52:43 -0500
"Hugh Sutherland" <> wrote:

> Ever see on thouighs tv shows where they take a picture and blow it
> up ans digitally enhance it so a small picture becomes crystal clear
> like when they are looking for a liscence plate number from a
> satelite? I have some small pictures that when I enlarg them they
> become grainy and big pixils. Whats a good program out their that
> can help me do what they show on the tv shows. Enhance and clear up
> the pictures and digitaly enhance it?

The equipment to do that is so exotic that only the big TV production
companies can afford it. So, what you need to do is figure out a way
to make friends with an insider on the set of one of those CSI shows
and have him "digitally enhance" your images during down time.
Actually, the character who does the image enhancement is sometimes
a hot babe. It could be fun!



Paul Allen

Hugh Sutherland wrote:
> Ever see on thouighs tv shows where they take a picture and blow it up ans
> digitally enhance it so a small picture becomes crystal clear like when they
> are looking for a liscence plate number from a satelite? I have some small
> pictures that when I enlarg them they become grainy and big pixils. Whats a
> good program out their that can help me do what they show on the tv shows.
> Enhance and clear up the pictures and digitaly enhance it?

Hi...

It's the same kind of equipment that let's Superman really fly

Take care.

Ken

Hugh Sutherland wrote:
> Ever see on thouighs tv shows where they take a picture and blow it up ans
> digitally enhance it so a small picture becomes crystal clear like when they
> are looking for a liscence plate number from a satelite? I have some small
> pictures that when I enlarg them they become grainy and big pixils. Whats a
> good program out their that can help me do what they show on the tv shows.
> Enhance and clear up the pictures and digitaly enhance it?
>
> Hugh

Assuming this is a serious request, do you believe everything you see
on TV?

Having said that, there are techniques that can help recover
*almost-lost* detail from grainy or not-quite-focused images, or that
can help smooth out pixel edges when enlarging. Look up programs like
"QImage" (very good enlarging algorithm, but does *not* and *cannot*
create detail where there was none), and maybe also try researching the
terms "deconvolution" and "Richardson-Lucy".

But in essence, if all you have is a small digital image and you want a
big one, with more detail, created from it...

Tough Luck!

This is the same show that has DNA samples coming back matched in an
hour and searches the world's fingerprint database while you watch.
They also have lab techs kicking down doors and questioning suspects.
Total escapism. Real police stations and cops look more like NYPD Blue
than CSI. And what police department has their techs all riding around
in Hummers??? Try delivery vans.

Hugh Sutherland wrote:
> Ever see on thouighs tv shows where they take a picture and blow it up ans
> digitally enhance it so a small picture becomes crystal clear like when they
> are looking for a liscence plate number from a satelite? I have some small
> pictures that when I enlarg them they become grainy and big pixils. Whats a
> good program out their that can help me do what they show on the tv shows.
> Enhance and clear up the pictures and digitaly enhance it?
>
> Hugh
>
>


No software or hardware can create pixels missing from an image. Some
software can "guess" at the missing information, by assessing the
adjacent data, sort of like some Photoshop® filters and tools, but none
can recreate it from nothing.

Those TV shows are fantasy, not to be confused with real life and real
technology. They will show a bank video (old VHS format) being enhanced
sufficiently to view an identifiable reflection of a person in someone's
glasses. Do you know what sort of resolution a VHS time lapse VCR has?

They also show a CSI investigator entering a room holding a florescent
black light tube and identifying all manner of blood, semen, drugs etc.
This certainly possible, but only by using a large and rather elaborate
frequency controlled/modulated ultraviolet system. Different frequencies
illuminate different types of proteins. The equipment is large, heavy,
fragile and expensive.

It's all make-believe just like the Lab assistant's cleavage.

Regards

Salty

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:52:43 -0500, Hugh Sutherland wrote:

> Ever see on thouighs tv shows where they take a picture and blow it up ans
> digitally enhance it so a small picture becomes crystal clear like when they
> are looking for a liscence plate number from a satelite? I have some small
> pictures that when I enlarg them they become grainy and big pixils. Whats a
> good program out their that can help me do what they show on the tv shows.
> Enhance and clear up the pictures and digitaly enhance it?
>
> Hugh

There ain't none. That's fiction. Theoretically, it could be done if you
had a sequence of images from a video, but that's it.

ray <> wrote:

: There ain't none. That's fiction. Theoretically, it could be done if you
: had a sequence of images from a video, but that's it.

Its easy if you do it the same way they do for the show. First take a
close-up photo of the license plate. Then step back about the length of a
football field (either American or European football will do) and take
another photo with the license plate centered using a "normal" lens (aprox
30-50mm). Then continue back in the same line to about half a mile and
once again take a "normal" shot from that distance. Now all you need is a
piece of software that will replace one image with another a single pixel
at a time. Take the third photo taken and film it as the "original". Then
crop the image to match the view of the second image. Resize this crop to
fill the screen (highly pixelated). film this as the zoom in, and then
film while employing the program to replace the crop of image 3 with image
2. Repete this procedure to change from image 2 to image 1 and you have a
film of a super zoom into a too-low res image and a "magical detail
recovery".

It's simple when you know how to do it. And you can amaze your friends
when you show off your film (or video) of your miraculous program. As I
think about it it may even be possible to use PSE and a two layer image
with the front most image being much larger than the back image, a zoom
into the larger image and then using the opacity slider on the front
image to fade into the rear image to make this work "live".

Randy

==========
Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL

Hugh Sutherland wrote:
> Ever see on thouighs tv shows where they take a picture and blow it up ans
> digitally enhance it so a small picture becomes crystal clear like when they
> are looking for a liscence plate number from a satelite? I have some small
> pictures that when I enlarg them they become grainy and big pixils. Whats a
> good program out their that can help me do what they show on the tv shows.
> Enhance and clear up the pictures and digitaly enhance it?
>
> Hugh
>
>
There are some programs that can do what they show, to some degree, but
you couldn't get the NSA to let go of them, and if you could, you would
need the super-computer they run on to make use of them. Mostly, what
you see is fiction, remember that.

hvsteve wrote:
> This is the same show that has DNA samples coming back matched in an
> hour and searches the world's fingerprint database while you watch.
> They also have lab techs kicking down doors and questioning suspects.
> Total escapism. Real police stations and cops look more like NYPD Blue
> than CSI. And what police department has their techs all riding around
> in Hummers??? Try delivery vans.
>

TV and movies exaggerate just about everything. Many tricks are
available to clarify photos, and those who deal with satellite, and
other surveillance imagery have used them for years. I suspect that the
NSA and other similar agencies can do some things that would amaze you,
but they use equipment you couldn't dream of affording (even it you had
the space), and techniques, and programs, that are classified.
Still, there are limits, and trying to get a license number from a
satellite image is pretty much on the 'it's not worth the effort' level
at this point, since even being able to see the plate would depend on
the luck of the angle of the satellite and the direction of the car.