What happens to history when technology edits photos from the past?
A team is adding colour and animation to old Hong Kong photos. They use artificial intelligence (AI) to do this. They post the edited images on their Instagram account @OldHKinColour.
For example, they show the roar of a 1920s Sheung Wan street. They also have a quiet temple scene at Wong Tai Sin from 1968.
The platform was founded in 2020 by Siu Sai-yau. He is an assistant professor at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. He had help from researchers specialising in history, 3D modelling and video colourisation.
First, they colour the images using AI. Then, they refer to historical sources to make sure it is accurate.
OldHKinColour has nearly 200,000 followers.
“We have had [people’s] descendants leave comments on the photos we colourised,” Siu said. “They sometimes recognise family members.”
