Department of Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering professor’s technology used in music video

 

When Song Zhang, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, developed a high-resolution, real-time 3-D shape measurement system, he knew it would have many scientific research and industrial applications. The entertainment industry, however, has been among the first professions to benefit from his work.

In the music video “House of Cards,” Radiohead, an alternative rock band from England, scanned the lead singer’s face to create a 3-D image of him singing. The system creates these 3-D images by projecting computer-generated fringe patterns on an object while a high-speed camera acquires the images from the projector. Using three consecutive images, the system reconstructs each frame of the shape to create a 3-D model. The video, available on YouTube, demonstrates the realistic images the system creates.

“The technology has potential to be used in manufacturing, medical science, computer science, biometrics, and entertainment,” Zhang said. “We still need to overcome challenges, such as reducing the size of the data the system generates, before we will see a wide-scale use of the technology.”

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