The MyHeritage page, specializing in video reconstruction, has created an application that can animate photos in seconds. See Simón Bolívar, the sage Caldas and Policarpa revive.
“Deep Nostalgia” or Deep Nostalgia has fascinated thousands of people. It is the application of the MyHeritage company, specializing in video reconstruction, which can bring images of characters from the past to life in seconds. At least 26 million photos have been uploaded to this page to see them turned into a short video in which the original characters gesture naturally.
For example, Simón Bolívar can blink and move his face as if he were being recorded with a modern camera, even if it’s just one of those old oil portraits hanging in a museum.
Or Policarpa Salavarrieta, better known as La Pola, the heroine who spied for the Creole independence forces during the Spanish reconquest, comes to life before our eyes. Animating a face in a photo usually takes between 10 and 20 seconds.
The technology behind Deep Nostalgia uses model videos as a basis to animate the photos. “Each model video consists of a fixed sequence of movements and gestures. Deep Nostalgia can apply a model video with great precision to a face that appears in your photo, ”the makers explain on their website.
As these types of digital tools have become more sophisticated and realistic, they have also been used for inappropriate purposes and increase the risk of misinformation. Last year, a company was denounced that used a similar technology to take nude photos of people, mostly women, from a simple photo.
Perhaps hence the clear warning from the creators of Deep Nostalgia: “This feature is for nostalgic use, that is, to bring beloved ancestors to life. Our model videos do not contain speech to prevent abuse such as creating ultra fake live videos of people. Use this feature on your own historical photos and not on photos with living people without their permission.
Sam Gregory, program director of Witness, a nonprofit dedicated to the ethical use of video and an expert on artificial intelligence, recently told The New York Times that “while Deep Nostalgia itself is harmless, it is part of this whole. Of tools that are potentially very threatening ”.
Since different motion sequences are possible for each photo, the program automatically chooses the sequence to apply to a specific face based on its orientation. “The gestures in the model videos used to create the animation sequences are real human gestures and the actors in most of these videos are MyHeritage employees,” the company explains.
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