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PetaPixel article about AI photo restoration project

Started by Jo Ann Snover, July 17, 2019, 01:25:20 PM

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Jo Ann Snover

I was sent a link to this article about an AI project to restore and colorize old military photos and followed the link at the end of the article to the web site with the images they used

https://petapixel.com/2019/07/16/a-technical-look-at-creating-an-photo-restoration-and-colorization-ai/

I was more interested in the restoration than the coloring as it looks like most of the previous auto-colored photos - not bad, but still pretty blotchy

I would expect in time AI will get better about knowing what it is looking at - and therefore do a better job of automated restorations. What I saw, however, is nowhere near useful - and actually is actively damaging the photos it is attempting to restore! The old photos themselves are a delight to look through (their directory "input" is the originals and "inpainted" the restored versions).

It seems to do better at removing small flecks, but larger scratches or damaged areas don't get fixed. The bigger problem is the damage it introduces. It removed medals or parts of them, seams on clothing, catchlights from eyes, holes from leather straps, leaves from trees. It smudged hair (where there was no damage; just the hairline against the background). In one example of cracked enamel, the "fixed" version just smeared the cracks, making them bigger than they were.

Admittedly, one could suggest that anyone with photo restoration skills might feel threatened by technology that automates that process, but I think the flaws I see are not nitpicks, but examples of how this really isn't ready for prime time just yet.
Jo Ann

Lynnya

Thanks for posting Jo Ann... interesting, I can't imagine it taking over a dedicated restorer any time soon tho.. :cool:
never giving up......learning from others as I go...

Mhayes

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