Creating 3D animations from regular 2D images has long been thought impossible by researchers since three decades ago. Describing the geometry of objects to a computer was no easy task back then. Even research computers are so much slower than our current home computers.

But the time is different now. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University has announced that they’ve found a way to help computers learn the geometric context of a 2D image automatically. Not only will we be able to generate 3D scenes from a single 2D image, the technology could also be used with gadgets and robots to better comprehend what their “eyes” see.

The transformation is accomplished by teaching the computer to spot visual cues to differentiate horizontal and vertical surfaces in outdoor scenes. For example, the sky is always blue and cars will likely be resting on flat grounds. From the video below, the technology is looking really promising.

How far do you think we are, from an age where robots roam the street and behave just like everyone of us?