Nvidia’s AI-based algorithm has been able to create an urban virtual environment automatically based on video images.
The streets through which the car advances are artificial. They are in the greatest sense of the word. So are the streets, the asphalt, the trees that flank them, the buildings that guard them, the rest of the vehicles and also the car itself.
Everything is part of a virtual environment created from computer graphics. But this is commonplace. The qualification of artificial is especially justified here because the brain that created this scenario is a deep learning algorithm or neural networks.
The software has been created by Nvidia, which has also put its Titan V graphics card to work on the project. The plan has been combine neural networks with computer-generated graphics. For this, the Nvidia algorithm and the Unreal Engine 4 game creation engine were used.
The result has been a photorealistic video that shows a limited car driving simulator. To achieve this, those responsible for the project had to train the algorithm. A task that they have carried out with the help of urban driving images from different videos.
From the information that has been introduced to Nvidia AI, it has been able to chart the scenario on its own. The first phase consists of determine the type of items that appear in the entered information. The sky, cars, trees or road are marked by the software. From there, computer graphics equivalent to the real ones can be generated.
The creativity of an AI
After artificial intelligence learns how to create the basic elements of the cocktail, it’s time to combine them. This is where the Unreal Engine 4 engine comes in, which associate different colors to objects according to their class.
The technology is still at an embryonic stage. But outstanding results have been achieved, such as automate the creation of a virtual environment. In the future it can be used to create video games or to render virtual images from real videos.
The most prominent fact here has to do with the automation of creation. Artificial intelligence is already capable of performing certain artistic featslike writing a novel or composing melodies. Nvidia’s algorithm is another example of how a part of creation can be left to machines.
Images: Nvidia
