Video research at MIT puts words into mouths

Cambridge, Mass. Marilyn Monroe died a generation before karaoke, digital animation and the pop singer Dido’s race onto Billboard’s Top 10. But in an eerie video clip created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, the long-dead celluloid star croons the song “Hunter” by the very much alive performer.

The MIT team has combined artificial intelligence and videography to make words and song emerge from the lips of people who could never possibly have uttered them.

Here’s how it works: A computer is programmed to troll through short video clips and learn how a specific person speaks. Once the computer has learned how the person shapes their mouth around individual sound segments called “phonemes” it can digitally morph the shape of the subject’s mouth around any audio sequence and put words in a subject’s mouth within minutes.

The MIT team is most excited to see this new technology used for language training, helping the deaf learn to speak or putting a more human face on computers, though it also has obvious applications for entertainment and film, such as realistic dubbing.

Online column takes a look at best movie Web sites

This week, “Spinning the Web” columnist Michael Newman, right, explores some of the best motion picture Web sites. For this week’s column and an archive of past columns, visit www.ljworld.com/section/spinningtheweb.

Book by outlaw hacker describes tricks of the trade

New York Barred by the terms of his probation from messing with computers, ex-convict hacker Kevin Mitnick has turned to writing about them, baring the tricks of his former trade in a forthcoming book.

An advance copy of the book, “The Art of Deception,” describes more than a dozen scenarios where tricksters dupe computer network administrators into divulging passwords, encryption keys and other coveted security details. But those seeking Mitnick’s version of his lawless escapades will have to wait. Personal details are carefully expunged from the book, which uses fictitious names of hackers, victims and companies.

Mitnick, 38, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., served five years in federal prison for stealing software and altering data at Motorola, Novell, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and the University of Southern California. He was released in January 2000 and is currently on three years’ probation.

The book is due in stores in October.