Noise reduction by AI

[petersmart]

More and more companies and researchers are turning to AI to solve the problems of digital images.

https://www.dpreview.com/videos/155...n-ultra-low-light-images-without-adding-noise

https://petapixel.com/2017/11/01/photo-enhancement-starting-get-crazy/

https://www.fastcompany.com/9014977...le-pixelated-photos-into-crystal-clear-images

Lets Enhance is a company that allows you to upload an image to their site to be enlarged - useful if you don't have a fast computer or Video Card:

https://letsenhance.io

AI Gigapixel uses AI to both enlarge the image and their latest version of their program now includes a de-noising option again using AI to help get rid of noise.

In all cases these programs are using neural networks to produce the results

And in the case of AI Gigapixel the results are incredible:

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/my-256mp-camera.684274/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20926615@N05/albums/72157700442514594

Almost every day now we hear of AI being used more and more in more and more areas.

Should we be worried about it - is our simple hobby the beginning of Skynet?

After all one system is called EnhanceNet:

http://webdav.tuebingen.mpg.de/pixel/enhancenet/

I know one thing - if ever I close a program and it says "I'll be back!" I'm heading for the hills !
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[Canon Bob]

,,,,,

And in the case of AI Gigapixel the results are incredible:

I've been using Topaz DeNoise as a LR plugin since its inception in 2010 and it seems that they've used their experience in this area to move things on to the next level.

 

[petersmart]

I've been using Topaz DeNoise as a LR plugin since its inception in 2010 and it seems that they've used their experience in this area to move things on to the next level.

I've always used Neat Image which I find gives excellent results if used properly.

One thing I like about Topaz' AI Gigapixel is that it used the Video Card to process the images - this means that even a relatively low powered PC can be used with a high powered Video Card.

My own PC is a Z600 workstation with 48GB RAM and 2 Xeon processors but is barely ticking over when batch enlarging my images with AI Gigapixel - Task Manager showed that it was running about 2% CPU usage and less than 3GB RAM with a 2GB card fitted - it was very slow due to high amount of processing needed for each pixel but I was still able to batch enlarge about 60 photos overnight.

Since some 4GB cards come in at under £100 for a PRO photographer building a dedicated machine to do this could save the costs of large MP cameras.
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