If you haven’t been able to convince publishers your life would make for an awesome comic book, and can’t draw more than a crude stick figure facsimile of yourself, you can thank the imaging researchers at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology in Japan. They’ve created a fun system that can automatically generate manga-style comics starring anyone striking a pose in front of its camera.
Edge-detection filters and other imaging tricks are used to turn photos of people into what appear to be hand-drawn images, with backgrounds automatically inserted based on their pose, and other elements positioned to line up with their hands or heads.
In the end a one-sheet manga page is printed, and to make it a truly authentic comic book, on the back you’ll even find an advertisement. Because if and when the system ever moves past the research stage, it’s being pitched as a fun way to generate memorable promotional materials that people will be hesitant to immediately throw away. [DigInfo TV]