Watch your photos age over time

Personal photos occupy an ever-expanding amount of space on hard drives. While some poke fun at the digital glut, others see a unique opportunity in this. Researchers at the University of Washington have created a mechanism to click hundreds or thousands of digital portraits and, in seconds, create an animation of the person's face. The tool can make a face appear to age over time, or choose images from the same period to make the person's expression gradually change from a smile to a frown.

“I have 10,000 photos of my five-year old son, taken over every possible expression,” said co-author Steve Seitz, a professor of computer science and engineering and engineer in Google's Seattle office. “I would like to visualise how he changes over time, see all the expressions he has, see him in 3D or animate him from the photos.” Lead author Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman, a postdoctoral researcher in computer science and engineering, is scheduled to present the research next week.

The new project followed research that automatically stitched together photos of buildings to recreate an entire scene in 3D. That led to Microsoft's Photosynth. Faces present additional challenges, Kemelmacher-Shlizerman said, because they move, change and age over time. “Luckily, face detection technology is improving.