Deep Nostalgia AI Tech brings a picture of Mangal Pandey back to life after 164 years

It is the 164th Martyrdom Anniversary of Mangal Pandey, the freedom fighter. Mangal Pandey was a soldier in the British East India Company. The EIC hanged him to death on 8th April for revolting against the colonial rulers. On his death anniversary today, Indians remember Mangal Pandey for his great courage and sacrifice. He spearheaded the Revolt of 1857 or the first war of Indian Independence when he led the mass revolutions against the use of animal fat greased guns.

Today, all over the world, people are pouring their love for him. Well, I decided to do something similar along the lines. So, I went back down a smaller nostalgia trip. In late February 2021, My Heritage, an AI-based firm launched a Deep Nostalgia platform. The website helped bring pictures of many revolutionary freedom fighters to life. So I took an opportunity, to do the same with a hand-drawn picture of Mangal Pandey. It was quite surreal to take a picture of him, and run it through the algorithm, and see his eyes blink, his smile and nod a little.

Here is the animated video of a picture of Mangal Pandey:

Credits: The picture is taken from a Facebook Post of Vajiram And Ravi (due to the high resolution). CiOL Author Laxitha Mundhra ran the video through the My Heritage AI algorithm.

People can animate still photographs by signing up for a free account on the My Heritage website. Users just need to sign up with the website and upload a picture to make it move, blink, smile and nod.

Technology and Nostalgia

“This feature truly takes “bring your old family photos to life” to a whole new level — and it’s gone a new level of viral in turn!” said MyHeritage in a blog when Deep Nostalgia went viral in early March. When I took the picture of Mangal Pandey, an inspiration to me, to animate, this was not what I expected. It filled my eyes with tears to see a legendary revolution-bringer come back to life, with a simple AI tool. You can also do the same by simply uploading a picture to the My Heritage website.

Read More: After AI brings pics of Bhagat Singh to life, many similar apps come up in the market