This AI breathes new life into old photos
No time right now?
If you want to see the deceased great-grandparents from dusty and faded family photo albums in action again, you can do so now. Artificial intelligence makes it possible.
It’s a popular element in scary films. Ancient paintings and photos of distant relatives, which have long since blessed the temporal, come to life again and haunt abandoned villas. Less scary and much more with a nice ulterior motive, Deep Nostalgia wants to bring old family photos to new life and still elicit a smile from grandma’s petrified expression from the 1920s.
“It makes me so happy to see him smile again!” Try our new #DeepNostalgia #PhotoAnimation feature for yourself and prepare to be AMAZED !!! https://t.co/p3h600G3MX pic.twitter.com/YdAn9IxyW0
– MyHeritage (@MyHeritage) February 28, 2021
The AI-based service is provided by Myheritage offered to a company that specializes in genealogy. Deep Nostalgia uses an AI licensed by the Israeli AI company D-ID, which makes it possible to convert a photo into a moving image. The program uses collected video recordings of faces, automatically decides what would be best for a certain still image, and places this recording over the image like a filter.
The effect is somewhat reminiscent of the live photo function of iOS. Logically, Deep Nostalgia can not only convert iPhone photos, it also works with images from the most historical phases of photography.
Terrifyingly good implementation
With the implementation of Deep Nostalgia, Myheritage aims to enable its own users to upload photos of deceased relatives and see them live in action again.
To use Deep Nostalgia, you need to create a free Myheritage account. A photo can then be uploaded. From then on, the process is automated. The image is improved, animated and spat out again as a GIF. The FAQ shows that the uploaded photos will not be passed on to third parties. After five photos, however, a paid account is required. Until then, you can definitely try it out a bit. Spoiler: In addition to photos, Deep Nostalgia also works with ancient statues like Alexander the Great.
Here’s Alexander the Great pic.twitter.com/djbnzszFM0
– Flint Dibble 🍖🏺📖 (@FlintDibble) February 28, 2021
A nice idea that hopefully won’t cause too many shocking moments.
