Enhancing video

[Jephph]

You know like on those crime shows where they'll be watching some security tape footage and they'll pause it and zoom in on a license plate or something, and then they "enhance" the video to make it so you can see the licence plate numbers? Does anybody know what software (if it's even real) they use?
I know that you would need a lot of computer power to do something like that, but i was just wondering if it's remotely legitimate that they could do that sort of thing in seconds like they make you believe on the shows.

 

[Arcadio]

I don't think it works as good in real life as in the TV shows. NASA might use that kind of video enhancement, but I don't know if there is a commercial version of that software. If there is, I don't think it would work like in the shows.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

There is no software that can take the pixels that are available and create new ones out of thin air.

 

[QuixoticOne]

It's fake. There are certain enhancements you can do but it's NOTHING like the fiction you see popularly in the movies.
At best you take something that is noisy / blurry / faint and make it a lot more distinct, but you're not going to magnify any common picture more than about 4x before all that is left is a total blotchy blur, and you're not going to take some tiny reflection or shadow or something and turn it into a nice picture.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Of course when cameras evolve for about another 5 years and we're shooting multispectral 100 megapixel 3D cameras ... well... then.... yeah.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Now that you're disappointed, here's some real image processing eye candy for you to enjoy although these are really cherry picked examples and not reflective of what you're casually going to do on your PC in 5 seconds anytime for a couple of years...
http://livelabs.com/photosynth/