[btbuildem]

I had the same question!

I will have to try this, I have a super edge use case: incomplete bathymetric depth map (lidar boat could not access some areas), coincidentally the most interesting areas are not in the data. My second piece of data is from flyover video (areas of interest where water is also clear enough to see the bottom). With enough video I can mostly remove the water-borne artifacts (ripples, reflections etc) and enhance the river bottom imagery enough to attempt photogrammetric reconstruction. The bottleneck here is that it takes multiple angles to do that, and the visibility through water is highly dependent on the angle of sunlight vs angle of camera.

Instead of doing multiple flyovers at different times of day to try and get enough angles for a mesh reconstruction, maybe this can do it relatively well from one angle!

[loudmax]

This does sound interesting, but is generative AI the right tool for this use case? A generative AI model sounds great for making a video game or even exploring historical photos, where introducing invented artifacts is a feature not a bug. In your case, wouldn't hallucinations be a problem?

[btbuildem]

I agree with you that it would be "made up" content, but I don't know how else to fill in the missing data. The area not scanned by LiDAR is just upstream from and directly beneath a set of whitewater rapids.

I can guesstimate the shape of the bottom by the behaviour of the flow, and hand-model the missing parts of the mesh. I thought outsourcing that to a generative model would be a nice shortcut -- and who knows, likely it'll synthesize it more true-to-nature than I would.

[Miraste]

That sounds quite interesting. Why are you trying to reconstruct a river bottom?

[btbuildem]

The shape river bottom causes a few standing waves / rapids to form. I am fascinated by it and want to better understand the hows and whys of it.

[llbbdd]

I'm also very curious. Searching for missing persons? Buried treasure?