Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
Deepfakes in realtime using WebRTC (aphrodite.ai)
38 points by nalef88 2844 days ago
11 comments

(as in other thread):

aphrodite.ai transforms your face to a currently limited set of target faces in near realtime. The neural network is not actually running in your browser but streams you webcam video via WebRTC to a high end GPU instance nearby and back. This is still very much work in progress on all parts: frontend, processing, ...

Tips on usage: - Use a desktop system with chrome or firefox - If the system does not work for some reason, please wait at least 5 minutes and reload the page - For best results your face pose is looking straight into the camera and in good lighting conditions.

You can try it for free by using the coupon code: HACKERNEWS

Comments & suggestions + imgurl screenshots highly appreciated :-)

Ummm, no camera and no WebRTC here ;)

So are there video examples?

Edit: Ah, I see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CugXYrV1MDg

Thanks a ton.

Why the hell don't they put an example on their page??

Well, that wouldn't help me. Because without WebRTC, their page doesn't load anything. At least for me, in heavily tweaked Firefox.
not clearly visible but here is one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CugXYrV1MDg

Maybe there is somebody else who could take a video here?

People would pay for this for sure, but jeez, this page is terrible, I assume it's just an MVP, you need to get some design work on this asap & I'm sure people will pay.
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, you are right there is still a lot to be done - we are just trying to get some initial comments/thoughts on it via HN. Is is not 'officially' launched yet. Any specific advice on improvements?
your going to probably need celebrities OK to use their likeness.
All 5000 coupon code sessions reserved for HN readers are exhausted. Thanks to everyone who gave it a try and provided us with feedback here on HN and via email. If you still haven't - we would highly appreciate your feedback! As much as we would like to give all of you a glimpse of our system - the compute costs unfortunately do not allow us to indefinitely extend the free sessions.

Though our system is still in a beta state and a bit rough around the edges - if you want to see it now you can already use it via the Stripe-based Credit Card payment system.

If you have any comments/suggestion please send us an email: info@aphrodite.ai

Please see this thread for more information on our system: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17949679
This is interesting, but what is something like this expected to be used for?

Is it for novelty value or is there a practical reason one would want to deepfake themself?

(Not a criticism, just legitimately curious.)

One use that occurs to me (though it opens a legal basket of worms) is amateur filmmaking. People love to write fan fiction; deepfakes can open the door to visual fan fiction in movie or TV form on a level that's not really possible right now.

A more legitimate one would be for videoconferencing -- if you fake yourself in the best possible shape (say, after some weight loss, plus makeup, plus great hair style, plus wardrobe), you can ALWAYS put your best visual foot forward without the hassle/money. So you could be sitting there bloated after eating a bunch of tacos but in a videoconference, look your best.

Similarly, it could be great for film productions: prepare a library of photos in proper makeup/prosthetics, then deepfake the actual footage, allowing the actor to work normally without the time and money spent redoing them every day.

Unfortunately the term deepfake is horribly loaded in negative ways.
> This is interesting, but what is something like this expected to be used for?

I can't believe you're missing the Snapchat-esque use-case. People are already augmenting their faces, this technology is right up the same alley.

I'm thinking realtime deepfakes plus augmented reality.

You could transform anyone you're seeing to anyone else. Your colleagues could become the cast of Start Trek. Turn everyone into monsters for the day.

Damn!

If I could run this thing locally, I could actually have a webcam :) If it did a total enough job, anyway.

Apparently this is only set up on the www subdomain -- trying to access it without www gives me a German 403.

I feel like if I paid for 15 minutes, I'd feel cheated sitting there watching the clock tick down while it "starts the AI cluster."

thanks. Looking into fixing the subdomain issue.

And you are right, we should not include the startup time in the 15min. Will fix that :)

I tried this on my Pixel XL and it worked surprisingly well, with one exception: the picture froze when I tried to select a different fake type. The page itself was still responsive (timer ticked down, I was able to "select" pictures, could scroll normally), but the final image was frozen and did not change despite waiting a minute or so.

I realize that you're probably not targeting mobile, but just in case. :)

Edit to add output example: https://i.imgur.com/yflCAd9.jpg

The resulting image is much darker and more pixelated than my actual front camera. Given the difference between my face type and Nicholas Cage's (I'm fat and bald), I'm surprised it mapped as well as I did.

Notable failures:

1. Edge of face ("ghosted" edges with my actual round face protruding from the faked area)

2. Map mouthing (very difficult to change the faked expression)

3. Eyebrows (they don't seem mapped at all)

Notable successes:

1. Angle (the faked face is consistently angled when I move my face/head)

2. Complexion (no real skin color variance)

Thanks. Currently we are not targeting mobile as there are several problems with it. So the default - before switching - produced actually a working output on your Pixel XL, is that correct?
Correct. I updated my post with some details and a screenshot.

Chrome 69.0.3497.86

Android 9.0.0; Pixel XL Build/PPR2.180905.006

This is really fun. I hope the quality improves at some point.
Yes, we are definitively working on that! Stay tuned for updates coming very soon.
Honestly, it looks like a site dedicated to tricking people into giving away their credit card data.
Thanks for the feedback. As explained here, all HN readers can use it with a free coupon code. Our credit card payment system is based on stripe. We never get the raw CC data (this can be verified in the JS code). Any suggestions to make it look more legit?
i work in a digital marketing agency and we build hundrets of landing pages, some with payment integration and forms. ways we significantly improve fill out rates is by increasing trustworthiness and credibility:

good design, add a credible logos (of stripe and of the payment methods accepted), https, reliable 3rd party testimonials service.

thanks!
Free use using coupon HACKERNEWS
i have a 720p camera and a clear, bright image. i see no difference when choosing between female and male actor. it seems stuck in angelina jolie.
Thanks for testing.

So you tried all of the available actors but it was always stuck on Angelina Jolie? Can you let me know what browser/platform you are using?

yes. i first saw my face clearly, then the first actor was overlayed. i clicked all of the characters, even giving the system enough time to adapt (waiting up to 20 seconds between switching characters). I didn't really notice a change.

not sure if i just didn't see the change because i didn't paid enough attention.

here's my details:

navigator.userAgent = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/68.0.3440.106 Safari/537.36

thanks. And a change should be very visible and only take less than a second. We will look into this.
Same for me on Chrome 68.0.3440.106, macOS 10.13.6. Clicking on the other faces does nothing.
Reached its capacity limit
We are getting quite a burst due to being on HN front page. Please try again in 5-10 minutes. Thanks!