Artificial intelligence (AI) has indeed come a long way and now a groundbreaking innovation lets users create images of a person if they have lived in different historical periods. The new AI-image generator technology would show how a person would have looked like if they were alive during the ancient Greek times or if they were reborn as an Arctic explorer in the 19th century.
The new application is called AI Time Machine under the DNA analysis company MyHeritage and it is taking the internet by storm. The technology is a perfect mix of online vanity and cutting-edge AI technology, which is why it is no wonder the company's technology is a hit.
MyHeritage product designer Ori Shraiber, who designed the user interface of AI Time Machine™ in different historical periods.
How the AI Time Machine Works
After three years after the foundation of MyHeritage, the company has already launched a suite of robust features that leverage the use of AI to bring old photos to life. The company wrote on its website that the new feature, the AI Time Machine, is a new twist to previous technology as it lets users see themselves as they might have looked at a certain historical period.
The company said that they aim to create fun features using AI to increase public interest in history and family history, particularly in the fascinating world of genealogy.
The AI Time Machine uses text-to-image AI technology to create photorealistic images of a person in different historical eras. The technology is based on the text-to-image model Stable Diffusion, which is also released in 2020, and on MyHeritage's personalization technology.
The AI could construct a model of a person in a variety of poses and settings using only 10 to 25 persons of that person. Then it synthesizes the model with the theme set in different periods to craft images of the person cast as a historical figure.
The technology offers dozens of themes that represent different historical periods, from prehistoric times to the 21st century set in outer space. The AI selects the first few themes for the user automatically when using it for the first time. After that, they could choose those that they find interesting and create more images. The output is a series of eight images that can be downloaded and shared in a collage.
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What Are the Available Themes?
The AI Time Machine is an application available on desktop and mobile web browsers that asks the user to upload photos of themselves taken from different angles, PetaPixel reported. It generates photos of the person cast in predefined themes set in various historical periods.
These themes include being an ancient Greek warrior, an Egyptian pharaoh, a medieval knight, a noble lady in the Victorian period, or a hippie from the 1960s. There are more themes in the app that can be downloaded and shared on social media.
The process of generating the photo only takes about 30 to 90 minutes after the user uploads the photos. The results could vary a bit in the sense that the user might become unrecognizable in the photos. Each account is limited to one model and 50 themes but it can generate up to 400 images. Although, the free trial can only create 40 images.
MyHeritage CEO Gilad Japhet noted that their company is constantly developing cool ways to connect people to their family history. In their three years in the business, they have released several successful features that use AI to bring historical or old pictures to life.
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