A new photo animation tool is using AI-powered ‘Deep Nostalgia’ technology to bring the past to life. And after trying, I am seriously scared about it.
The Deep Fake style tool from the online genealogy company MyHeritage takes your old photos and uses machine learning to animate facial expressions and movements in a truly mysterious way. You can download the videos for 10-20 seconds and share them with your family.
I experimented with a childhood photo of my mother – with her permission, of course; this type of technology has the potential to bother people, so I always advise you to check before using any image, especially if the person in question has passed away.
The service is super easy to use. Just go to MyHeritage Deep Nostalgia page, then click the Upload photo button or drag and drop your image.
The AI will take about 20 seconds to work its magic on the photo, before presenting the final result to your surprise. And yes, it is really incredible. That’s scary. At the same time.
I never met my mother as a child, obviously. But the clip below does an extraordinarily good job of showing me what she looked like – much more than a still photo could.
So I tried it on a photo of me from my youth. Here, the AI seemed to be a little confused by my eyes, which lessened the impact a little while increasing the chills factor. There is definitely something about the touching portraits of Harry Potter about this.
You can even use the tool on a photo with several people in it. The technician will analyze the image and ask which face to animate. Here I am as a baby; cute, huh? You can see my mother in the background – the AI successfully cheered me up, making her static.
The service is initially free to use, as long as you sign up for a MyHeritage account. This is as simple as entering your email address and some other details, and then agreeing to MyHeritage’s terms and conditions.
The free account allows you to animate only five photos, however, and also includes a watermark in each video. Sign up for a full account – currently $ 16.58 per month – and you will have unlimited access to the tool and downloads without a watermark.
The technology behind the Deep Nostalgia tool is the work of D-ID, an Israeli company specializing in “reconstitution technology”. MyHeritage previously used it to animate a photo of Abraham Lincoln.
He uses real human gestures, captured from MyHeritage employees, to animate the photos, and the company points out that the end result “is not authentic, but rather a technological simulation of how the person in his photo would have moved and looked if he had been captured in video. “
He also warns that “Depending on the video and the angle, the technology sometimes needs to simulate parts that do not appear in the original photo, such as teeth or ears, and the quality of the final result can vary.”
The tool went viral quickly in the few days since it was launched, with predictable mixed reactions. As MyHeritage itself says, “Some people find the Deep Nostalgia ™ feature magical, while others find it scary and don’t like it.”
Absolutely amazed by the Deep Nostalgia AI tool from @MyHeritage. The video below was generated from a portrait of my great grandmother taken when she was only 20 years old. I’m speechless. pic.twitter.com/AdUUsIMsMkFebruary 26, 2021
I tried that MyHeritage tool “Deep Nostalgia” on one of my ancestors, and it gave him a crazy sparkle in his eyes. What, considering that he thought he could win the Civil War with airships, is perhaps a victory for AI? Anyway, this is halfway to necromancy, and I’m weird. pic.twitter.com/fLm05Rd0HjMarch 1, 2021
I would say it is magical and scary. There is no doubt that there is some seriously smart technology behind this and the end results are fascinating. But it is also disturbing to see something that you know is not real, but that seems so real.
If you want to try it for yourself, go to the MyHeritage website.