If You Thought Photoshop Was Good...

Researchers at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore presented image processing technology at Siggraph Asia that can create realistic photo composites from a simple sketch. The technology takes a users' rough-labeled drawing of a scene and compares its elements to objects extracted from photos on the Internet. These real-world snippets are then filtered, matched and synthesized Photoshop-style into a single image. And while results vary, they need to be seen to be believed.

Like Microsoft’s Photosynth, PhotoSketch (above) shows how advanced images processing and search algorithms can be used for more than just face-matching and sorting through surveillance footage. For instance, they can also be used to create a photograph of a cheetah chasing a Motocross racer through the desert (skip to 0:14).

No wonder the site seems to be loading awfully slowly and has been down this morning. Sure it's being flooded with those in disbelief.