A new algorithm.

Back in the early days when founders Brin and Page were mere multi-millionaires, they concluded that it would be chic to adopt the catchy ‘Do no evil’ catchphrase for their company, Google. They then proceeded to do mighty evil on a global scale, stealing and reselling your identity, while maintaining that all their software was free. You, poor sap, were the product, to be sold and resold ad infinitum.

Now that Page and Brin are retired, needing the leisure time to count their ill-gotten billions, Google has actually gone and done something distinctly not evil. “Working with UC Merced and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (they) have detailed the development of DAIN, a depth-aware video frame interpolation algorithm that can seamlessly generate slow-motion videos from existing content without introducing excessive noise and unwanted artifacts.” (The quote is from DP Review).

This algorithm, and the related free software, allows interpolation of frames in low frame rate videos to restore smoothness. At the same time, the code is smart enough to properly treat overlapping and moving elements in the frame. The results are simply stunning, as this video from 1890s Paris – enhanced and colorized, as well as up-frame rated – shows:

Paris, 1890. Click for the video.

Wait a minute. Did I write that Google had momentarily given up its evil ways? Ooops! Now you can interpolate your cheating spouse into that video and, whammo!, a million dollar alimony settlement. Old habits die hard, I guess.