New AI tool brings old photos to life

What if you could make your late grandfather in an old photo look up and smile at you? This and numerous other possibilities have intrigued social media users after discovering an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered service called Deep Nostalgia that animates the faces in still photos.

Offered by online genealogy company MyHeritage, the Deep Nostalgia service helps users create the effect that a still photo is moving, The Verge reported on Sunday. In its FAQ page, the company said that the technology for animating photos was licensed by MyHeritage from D-ID, a company specialising in video re-enactment using deep learning.

MyHeritage integrated this technology to animate the faces in historical photos and create high-quality, realistic video footage.

The company said that the Deep Nostalgia feature uses several drivers prepared by MyHeritage. Each driver is a video consisting of a fixed sequence of movements and gestures.

It applies the drivers to a face in a still photo, creating a short video that people can share with your friends and family.

“The driver guides the movements in the animation so you can see your ancestors smile, blink, and turn their heads. This really brings your photos to life,” MyHeritage said.

Twitterati is using the programme to generate memes of all kinds with some even applying the tool to animate ancient statues.

MyHeritage said that “photos uploaded without completing signup are automatically deleted to protect your privacy.”