25 February 2021
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Deep Nostalgia™ , a new tool from MyHeritage animates the faces in still photos, providing a depiction of how a person could have moved and looked if they were captured on video.
The launch was announced at RootsTech Connect, the global family history conference that runs from 24-27 February. Visit the Family Tree booth at RootsTech Connect.
How does it work?
The technology for animating the faces in photos was licensed by MyHeritage from D-ID, a company that specializes in video reenactment using deep learning. Deep Nostalgia™ uses several pre-recorded driver videos, which direct the movements in the animation and consist of sequences of real human gestures.
A preferred driver is automatically selected for each face based on its orientation, and then applied to the photo. The result is a short, high-quality video animation of an individual face that can smile, blink, and move.
To achieve optimal results, the photos are enhanced prior to animation using the MyHeritage Photo Enhancer, which brings blurry and low-resolution faces into focus and increases their resolution.
A new way of connecting to our family history
Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage, said: 'You'll have a 'wow moment' when yo see a treasured family photo come to life with Deep Nostalgia™. Seeing our beloved ancestors’ faces come to life in a video simulation lets us imagine how they might have been in reality, and provides a profound new way of connecting to our family history."
Try out Deep Nostalgia™ on the MyHeritage website.