Deep Nostalgia Brings Historical Photos to Life Using AI

Deep Nostalgia is a new AI-powered technique from online family tree service MyHeritage, which adds facial animations such as smiles, nods, blinks, and head tilts to still portrait photos. Using the website or mobile app, users can choose from a set of pre-recorded animations that can be transferred onto their own still photos. The service warns that its technology should not be used to try creating "deepfake" videos of public figures or anyone else without their permission. You can crop faces from group shots but cannot yet animate multiple people in one frame. A watermark will be applied to indicate that such animations are generated artificially.

Users can sign up for a free account to use Deep Nostalgia, but will be limited to a small number of animations unless they purchase a subscription plan. Animations can easily be posted to social media and exported as MP4 files. The technology has gone viral on social media, with people posting examples of "Harry Potter"-style animated portraits. In India, Keerthik Sasidharan, author of The Dharma Forest, is among the users who have posted animations of Indian freedom fighters and other historical figures. Here are some of the most interesting photos they have posted.