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Hey HN! We originally built this as part of a bigger app but since removing backgrounds of images can be a tiresome task in itself we thought why not release it

by groe 8y ago

Hey HN! We originally built this as part of a bigger app but since removing backgrounds of images can be a tiresome task in itself we thought why not release it as a standalone tool? Feedback appreciated!

pietroglyph 8y ago
Very impressive! It has some issues with uncommon hats though (which isn't too surprising): Original: https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/xrichard-stallman.jpg.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+ws+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.9qDC7nl9gF.jpg https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/xrichar... Background removed: https://www.remove.bg/system/uploads/image/processed/1c5f1c68-70f2-49a6-8f88-477f7a0b6d65/b_xrichard-stallman.jpg.pagespeed.gp%2Bjp%2Bjw%2Bpj%2Bws%2Bjs%2Brj%2Brp%2Brw%2Bri%2Bcp%2Bmd.ic.9qDC7nl9gF.png https://www.remove.bg/system/uploads/image/processed/1c5f1c6...
- btown 8y ago
  I feel like RMS would be positively tickled to know that his hat had broken a commercial machine learning API.
  - ndnxhs 8y ago
    And disappointed that his photos were fed to it.
- jjeaff 8y ago
  If I was asked to cut the background out of that photo, I also would have been confused about that big circle behind his head.
  - kawsper 8y ago
    It's Saint IGNUcius that is on that picture, he is a saint in the church of Emacs, and the halo on his head is an old disk.
    - WalterGR 8y ago
      The drive-by downvotes on HN have truly gotten out of control. HN needs to again raise the minimum karma required to downvote.
logicallee 8y ago
Fantastic! great job. On the photo I tried I was holding a water bottle, it between the water bottle and my body it left a small area (inside my elbow) - also between my knees. Given how fantastic it is, if there were a way for you to add a click to remove more parts that it hadn't thought of as the background (in this case between my elbow and body) it might be good. The wall itself in that space was very regular, but I can see why it didn't remove it, it might as well have been a jacket or something, in which case no need to remove it. The outline of my body that it did make was amazing.
aruggirello 8y ago
Great job! As a note, I think you will likely collect lots of deep links to "missing" pictures over time as your service becomes popular - you already got two such links on this page in a few hours...
- Tuxa 8y ago
  We are not an image hoster after all. Too many problems would be coming along also.
  - toast0 8y ago
    You might want to make it more obvious that pictures aren't linkable by doing something like returning the image from a POST (might make for bad UI) or returning the image as a data url.
  - joeyespo 8y ago
    Makes sense! One idea for the "enter a URL" path. If you save the image URL for a longer time period, you could give the viewer the option to re-run that URL and perhaps save it to that location for another hour. Or show a message like what Flask's logo does when you right-click it the first time [0]. e.g. "Note: Direct linking will not work. This image will disappear from our servers in an hour." (Possibly with "Click here to post to Twitter instead," which can help "persist" an image while spreading the site a bit further in the process.) [0]: http://flask.pocoo.org/ http://flask.pocoo.org/
dalys 8y ago
Hello! What's the bigger app? Are you still working on that and this is just a nice little side project?
jkukul 8y ago
How did you collect the training set? Did you manually process (removed background) from training images or outsourced it via a third party?
- Tuxa 8y ago
  I cheated a little bit by creating an AI that allowed me to do it faster in a semi-automatic fashion. However, the first batch to train this "labeling"-network was generated manually, which took forever.
  - wvlia5 8y ago
    That semi-automatic AI seems like a useful product as well, for a different task

by groe 8y ago

pietroglyph 8y ago

Very impressive! It has some issues with uncommon hats though (which isn't too surprising): Original: https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/xrichard-stallman.jpg.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+ws+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.9qDC7nl9gF.jpg https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/xrichar... Background removed: https://www.remove.bg/system/uploads/image/processed/1c5f1c68-70f2-49a6-8f88-477f7a0b6d65/b_xrichard-stallman.jpg.pagespeed.gp%2Bjp%2Bjw%2Bpj%2Bws%2Bjs%2Brj%2Brp%2Brw%2Bri%2Bcp%2Bmd.ic.9qDC7nl9gF.png https://www.remove.bg/system/uploads/image/processed/1c5f1c6...

btown 8y ago
I feel like RMS would be positively tickled to know that his hat had broken a commercial machine learning API.
- ndnxhs 8y ago
  And disappointed that his photos were fed to it.
jjeaff 8y ago
If I was asked to cut the background out of that photo, I also would have been confused about that big circle behind his head.
- kawsper 8y ago
  It's Saint IGNUcius that is on that picture, he is a saint in the church of Emacs, and the halo on his head is an old disk.
  - WalterGR 8y ago
    The drive-by downvotes on HN have truly gotten out of control. HN needs to again raise the minimum karma required to downvote.

logicallee 8y ago

Fantastic! great job. On the photo I tried I was holding a water bottle, it between the water bottle and my body it left a small area (inside my elbow) - also between my knees. Given how fantastic it is, if there were a way for you to add a click to remove more parts that it hadn't thought of as the background (in this case between my elbow and body) it might be good. The wall itself in that space was very regular, but I can see why it didn't remove it, it might as well have been a jacket or something, in which case no need to remove it. The outline of my body that it did make was amazing.

aruggirello 8y ago

Great job! As a note, I think you will likely collect lots of deep links to "missing" pictures over time as your service becomes popular - you already got two such links on this page in a few hours...

Tuxa 8y ago
We are not an image hoster after all. Too many problems would be coming along also.
- toast0 8y ago
  You might want to make it more obvious that pictures aren't linkable by doing something like returning the image from a POST (might make for bad UI) or returning the image as a data url.
- joeyespo 8y ago
  Makes sense! One idea for the "enter a URL" path. If you save the image URL for a longer time period, you could give the viewer the option to re-run that URL and perhaps save it to that location for another hour. Or show a message like what Flask's logo does when you right-click it the first time [0]. e.g. "Note: Direct linking will not work. This image will disappear from our servers in an hour." (Possibly with "Click here to post to Twitter instead," which can help "persist" an image while spreading the site a bit further in the process.) [0]: http://flask.pocoo.org/ http://flask.pocoo.org/

dalys 8y ago

Hello! What's the bigger app? Are you still working on that and this is just a nice little side project?

jkukul 8y ago

How did you collect the training set? Did you manually process (removed background) from training images or outsourced it via a third party?

Tuxa 8y ago
I cheated a little bit by creating an AI that allowed me to do it faster in a semi-automatic fashion. However, the first batch to train this "labeling"-network was generated manually, which took forever.
- wvlia5 8y ago
  That semi-automatic AI seems like a useful product as well, for a different task