What are the non-malicious uses for something like this? Haven't actually got around to pondering that yet.
But who should they look like?
Maybe that spot could be sold...
I like your idea about selling spots though, definitely something I have never thought of before.
Reshooting scenes of movies without having to get key actors back on location.
Immersive storytelling where you get to be placed inside a movie.
Actor safety where they can go through transformations for a shoot, such as extreme weight loss or weight gain.
I can really only think of it in terms of entertainment. There may be some therapy benefits which are yet to get discovered, but I would imagine that's a whole new level of complexity.
Not to mention you'll just come off as a huge weirdo as soon as you're found out.
>Ha! People who wear power suits, makeup, expensive haircuts and shoes are already doing all this. Technology just means you don't have to spend time in the stylist's chair to accomplish it any more!
Did you forget what you wrote?
They are for reinforcing it.
This isn't imprecision of language.
That side issue does not have much to do with the video issues under discussion, though.
I shudder at the thought of a world in which always-on lies about your appearance become standard practice.
Have physical reality and truth really become irrelevant?
I remember watching a TV show years ago about a woman who had had lots of plastic surgery, found the man of her dreams, and was now pregnant. She was afraid the baby would come out looking totally different than she did, because she had physically changed herself so much, and her husband would leave her over the deceit.
At the same time, with cosmetic surgery, you are changing physical reality. Someone has sliced up your body and reconfigured it to be more what you want.
So it's not necessarily a "lie", as such.
Like I said, though, I see what you're getting at, and it's a valid point.
* A demo video of what life in a new house would be like. Pre-recorded video featuring actors waking up, eating breakfast, and living life in a home could have the actors replaced with the potential home buyers.
* Security tests... for facilities that have to look for "banned" people, occasionally a face could be replaced on the video to see if the security guard notices. This is similar to the TSA sometimes testing workers by putting in fake images of guns or bombs into the X-Ray display to make sure their workers are actually paying attention.
* Retroactively correcting visual media that is no longer appropriate. I would love a version of "The Cosby Show" where Bill Cosby was replaced by another famous black actor just because it would trigger my liberal guilt less. This could allow studios to craft contracts where if a star committed a grievous act or if they die, their likeness could be replaced throughout the series and they would stop receiving royalties for their visual appearance. Dialog could be re-dubbed as well to complete the retroactive continuity.
* Updating low-res video... If there is a very poor and grainy interview with someone, the image might be able to be enhanced more completely by replacing the subjects face with a higher resolution copy of their own face!
* Smart therapy mirrors... people who have had disfigurements or have body image problems could have a smart mirror that displays a modified image for either self-esteem purposes or to help them psychologically.
* Same applies for funhouse/haunted house mirrors... seeing a mirror image of yourself with a zombie-ified head would be a great illusion.
* Real-world facial masking... You know how people can 3d map the exterior of a building and then project an image onto it using that 3d map taken into account to pull off some spectacular illusions? [1]
Something similar, sans holographic technology, could be done to make someone appear like someone else. A camera and 3d scanner environment to track the facial contours and location, with a projector projecting the image of another face onto the real face. Similar to the scene in Bladerunner 2049 where the AI girlfriend rents a real-world avatar for a personal encounter with her boyfriend. [2]
Punking your friends too.
In a productive context in filmmaking you can have fun with doubles and stuntmen and stunt women. Or if you have the rights to license the face and likeness of an actor actress and they can be in five films, ten films in a year (forgetting about brand dilution). John Wayne can be in a new Western movie,
"Punking" does not qualify as non-malicious.
If an actor dies while filming a movie, it can be required in the contract that they allow their face to be generated for scenes that haven't been filmed yet.
They could also use this to use a younger face as they age.
If this gets mainstream enough, "revenge porn" would also lose a lot of its current value, being easily dismissible as "fake". (And so would genuine photographical evidence...)
Journalists could use it to hide their sources from the public. If this gets reaaly good, it would become a nice alternative to motion capture for cinematography (pose estimation, including facial expressions). Then swap in the 3D model, or concept art of the person you want to appear on screen. Significantly reduce the costs for makeup, and enable more in post-prod. That was probably already available for big teams with big budgets, but this makes it more mainstream.
I am not a lawyer, though.
Why use a real face? You could generate a fake one using a GAN. You may even be able to build a fully automatic anonymize tool that can identify the broad characteristics of each face present (skin tone, age, male/female etc) then use that to generate replacement faces.
But thinking about it some more, I at least don't mind clothing ads using me as the model. (Assuming there's opt in and all)
It's better than mentally swapping out the skin tone and body type to see if it was really the clothes that looked good or the attractive model.
1. including "Face off"
Travel industry can have uses as well - these days many places offer video recordings of their clients doing some dangerous activity; for those that can't do them yet still want the video they could offer pre-baked scenes where taking a selfie could kill somebody and then replace their face/body with some green screen footage of their client using this app and some pose estimator/body switcher. Or just show you how much would you enjoy some beach property in some hot location with a video featuring you etc. This would make it useful for custom ads featuring you as well.
Often English language films are poorly dubbed for local (mostly non-English speaking) markets. Having a local/recognisable actor filling the role would be a big improvment.
I can see them modifying the actual original actor to speak in a local language however to sync with the localized dialogue.
That said, your proposition is also interesting. It raises some questions though. Imagine an indie French film where the protagonist (or whoever) gets replaced by a Hollywood actor. Or an indie Angolan film which gets the treatment. There would be lots of purists (for many reasons) protesting this kind of option.
Celebrities could sell the 'rights' to their faces and then ordinary people could 'act' in commercials and later on even movies and then just stick the face of the celebrities?! xD Celebrities will become cheaply available to 'star' in your next Netflix series.
(But unfortunately, even if celebrities don't sell their faces, they'll be stolen!)
https://github.com/deepfakes/faceswap#faceswap-has-ethical-u...
Next question: does it make CCTV footage obsolete as a form of permissible evidence in court?
[1] https://www.dezeen.com/2019/05/24/salvador-dali-deepfake-dal...
[EDITED]
probably only funny if you watch these folks regularly
Or going the other way, use a real video of your friend and replace their face with a famous actor.
Personalized entertainment.