Disney demonstrates deepfake technology that can swap people's faces in high-resolution

  • Disney's deepfake technology pumps out videos at high-resolution
  • The added megapixels help it create deepfakes at 1024 x 1024 
  • It still has limitations before being used commercially 

Disney wants deepfakes to hit the big screen.

In a recently published paper, Disney Research Studios described a facial-swapping technology that uses an AI algorithm to realistically alter one's facial features in high-resolution. 

While the technology isn't by any means novel, the algorithm is unique in that its capable of producing images that are high-resolution and as a result, photorealistic. 

'To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method capable of rendering photo-realistic and temporally coherent results at megapixel resolution,' the researchers write in their paper.

While other algorithms focus on smooth facial transitions, Disney's algorithm focuses on increasing megapixels, allowing it to produce videos with a resolution of 1024 x 1024.

That resolution also means that the images will ultimately look better on bigger screens.

As noted by The Verge, outside of the algorithm's high resolution, Disney's deepfake technology is fairly consistent with others of its kind.

Though it can automatically adapt to different facial expressions, it has a difficult time with faces that aren't forward-looking and well lit.

It's easy to see the technology having applications in CGI, but according to researchers there's still work to be done before the technology can be used commercially.

'While those results are impressive, they are expensive to produce and typically take many months of work to achieve mere seconds of footage,' write the researchers. 

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