When I was a kid, I loved to watch the original Godzilla movies. Not the new CGI stuff mind you, but the character (pictured below) from the 50's and 60's.
What I used to giggle at the most were the horrid audio dubs... you know, where the actor's mouth moves and the words that come out just don't match the movements. Ultimately, this mismatch of visual and audio drove me to an appreciation for watching foreign movies with subtitles rather than dubbing.
Well, now there is a technology - developed by folks from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg - that allows a face actor "take over" the face of someone on film and control all mouth and facial movements. It is called "Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment." The first time I saw this demonstrated I though "cool - no more bad dubs!!" but then a weird feeling began to settle in the pit of my stomach.
What if this technology was used on YouTube Videos where politicians, or other public figures, had their faces hijacked - or maybe better said as "face-jacked" - and people started falsifying statements made by these celebrities.
Imagine, a video where Senator Sanders seemingly endorses the US presidential campaign of Donald Trump and you can't tell that it is false! Imagine terrorist groups "face-jacking" world leaders and then using those faces to spread their terrorist propaganda. Now, more than ever, we really need to teach our students to be critical thinkers and examine everything that they see - especially on TV or on the web - through a critical, cautious lens. (In the case of Mr. Putin above, we know it is fabricated as he never smiles!!)
Here is a link to the demo video put out by the Erlangen-Nuremberg university.
So, what do you think? Are you as concerned about this as I am? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section on the blog site.
Regards...
Yossie
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