One genealogy company is doing what used to be reserved for celebrities — reanimating the dead.
Genealogy company MyHeritage introduced its “Deep Nostalgia” tool Thursday. Similar to so-called “deep fakes,” the feature allows users to turn still photos of their dead relatives into briefly animated videos, which can show photos of people from decades ago smiling and blinking.
The software was developed by Israeli computer vision firm D-ID and uses deep learning algorithms to mimic facial expressions modeled by employees at MyHeritage for the project.
“You’ll have a ‘wow moment’ when you see a treasured family photo come to life with Deep Nostalgia,” said Gilad Japhet, the founder and CEO of MyHeritage, in a statement. “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.”
‘DEEPFAKES’ A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT
Users on social media have already been posting animated photos of their relatives who died years before they were born, as well as animations of famous historical figures and paintings.
We’ve got ‘deep-fake’ now we also have ‘deep-nostalgia’
The software that brings old photos of our relatives back to life is going to be huge. pic.twitter.com/t7auDw4a79— Daniel Holland ? (@DannyDutch) February 27, 2021
Via Deep Nostalgia… pic.twitter.com/44ez8Yumbb
— Paranormal Database (@paradbase) February 27, 2021
my great grandfather died 20 years before I was born and I’ve never seen a video of him, so seeing technology work like this absolutely blows my mind! #DeepNostalgia #myheritage pic.twitter.com/lZa0LlC9v8
— Matt Daly (@GenealogyMatt) February 26, 2021
Oh my lord, I had a go at the #DeepNostalgia thingy … slightly freaky! ?
1) Great Grandfather Alfie pic.twitter.com/wlXrxAlOyk
— Claire Robson (@ClaireDemon) February 26, 2021
In these days of cultural limbo, bringing the past to life is becoming addictive – it’s the ultimate retro pastime. First Hadi Karimi colourised and made Beethoven 3D. Now he moves! #DeepNostalgia pic.twitter.com/z3jpRoXPD8
— Attila (@attilalondon) February 27, 2021
While most users appear to be intrigued by the technology, Elaine Kasket, a psychology professor at the University of Wolverhampton in Britain, told Reuters that Deep Nostalgia is “at the top of a slippery slope.”
“When people start overwriting history or sort of animating the past … you wonder where that ends up,” Kasket said.
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Users can upload a certain number of images for free before a paid subscription is required to upload more.
