The online genealogy company MyHeritage has a new tool that can help bring your family history to life. Kind of.
Deep Nostalgia is a new AI tool that can animate photos of people by adding simple effects like smiles, nods and blinks. It can add movement to any old photo, and it’s free to try, as long as you create a MyHeritage account.
After submitting a photo of a loved one, it is processed through AI, which adds a set of animations based on the facial expressions of MyHeritage employees. The result – available in 10-20 seconds – is presented in the form of a very short video clip or GIF.
A company called MyHeritage is now offering a new service, called Deep Nostalgia, that can liven up people in old photos by creating a short video that looks like it was recorded while posing and preparing for the portrait [read more: https://t.co/TvjAQdSf9A] pic.twitter.com/5Mn3YLgi6WFebruary 27, 2021
AI was licensed by the Israeli company D-ID (which means ‘de-identification’) and is currently only able to liven up people’s faces. Even multiple faces in a single photograph can come to life.
If the idea of bringing dead relatives to life is brilliant or scary it is, perhaps you will decide. Even MyHeritage admits that this can be polarizing.
“Some people love the Deep Nostalgia feature and consider it magical,” says MyHeritage in the FAQ section on their Deep Nostalgia page, “while others find it scary and don’t like it. In fact, the results can be controversial and it is difficult to remain indifferent about this technology. . “
Turned
Deep Nostalgia went viral on Twitter over the weekend, with people interested in bringing their deceased loved ones to life. Some, however, took it a step further and tried on photographs of historic statues … with some interesting results.
If you want to try it for yourself, visit the Deep Nostalgia website and create a free account. You can upload up to five photos for free, but any other one will require you to get a paid account. If you already have a full subscription with MyHeritage, you can use the service at no additional cost and upload unlimited photos.
If you are concerned about privacy, MyHeritage says it does not share photos with third parties and, as mentioned on the Deep Nostalgia home page, “photos uploaded without completing registration are automatically deleted to protect your privacy”.