New AI 'Time-Travel Rephotography' Shows How People Actually Looked Back Then

By Ana Dascalescu

Posted on April 15, 2021

You know that famous photograph of Abraham Lincoln, his eyes weary and his face lined, as if aged by his responsibilities?

Actually, thanks to this new AI colorization technique called ‘time-travel rephotography’, we now know that Abraham Lincoln looked a lot younger in reality than what the camera captured.

How about others?

You can see below a full gallery of famous individuals, from Bertrand Russel to Frida Kahlo, Nikola Tesla and Martin Luther King.

Researchers from the University of Washington, UC Berkeley, and Google Research teamed up to develop an AI which they trained on a database of modern digital portraits and deployed on old photos, to make them look much closer to reality.

Surprised to see Lincoln looking so radiant?

“Many historical people are captured only in old, faded, black and white photos that have been distorted by the limitations of early cameras and the passage of time,” begin the researchers, who go on to explain that their AI accounts for those antique camera flaws and correct them, so they look like they were snapped with a modern DSLR.

You can see a lot more of their results here and, if you really want a lifelike experience, feel free to run one of these photos through this DeepNostalgia generator.

Full-color, moving pictures of famous people? Now they’re just a couple of clicks away!