Fake alien identified with image processing algorithm
Maybe I just never considered it before, but I never thought I’d see the day where I’m able to write about aliens on Vision Systems Design. Yet here I am now, writing about aliens.
This particular story, which is one you might see on the cover of a tabloid magazine in the grocery store, is one about mistaken identity. UFO researchers, according toThe Metro, were looking through 60-year-old slides when they spotted what looked like an alien being transported from the site of the 1947 Roswell crash. An arena full of people in Mexico even paid to watch the unveiling of these slides, and thousands more tuned in from around the world.
It would be hard to argue that "Are we alone in the Universe?" isn’t one of the most important scientific questions that we as a species have pondered—something that is evident by the unwavering curiosity of people like those who tuned into this programming, desperately seeking empirical evidence proving the existence of alien life forms.
But alas, we’ll all have to keep searching, as an image of the alien on the internet showed the "alien" to be a ahoax, or at least an embarrassing mistake. Using animage processing program called Smart Deblur—which makes use of the blind deconvolution image processing algorithm, which is used to restore blurred images—one internet user identified a placard in the slide that reads "Mummified Body of Two Year Old Boy." Further down, the words "San Francisco Museum," seem to appear.
So after applying thealgorithm to the image, it was determined that the image was indeed real. However, instead of it being an alien, it was an image of a museum exhibit that was erroneously linked to Roswell and Aliens.
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About the Author
James Carroll
Former VSD Editor James Carroll joined the team 2013. Carroll covered machine vision and imaging from numerous angles, including application stories, industry news, market updates, and new products. In addition to writing and editing articles, Carroll managed the Innovators Awards program and webcasts.