Maybe we should call it a Deadfie. Very soon, you will be able to create a selfie of yourself with a near and dear person who has passed away. Sounds creepy? Maybe, but it grabbed headlines at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, when South Korean company Elrois, showed off their app, WithMe, which lets you “resurrect” a dead person and makes him or her react, gesture, move around and join you in a selfie. The app needs a 3D scan of the deceased person, generated from a photo, to recreate his/her image and visual personality.
It creates an “avatar” of a person and animates the image in real-time. Artificial Intelligence tools allow it to decipher your facial expressions, moods and makes the “avatar” respond to it. Right now the app needs you to upload a 3D image, which is not easy to obtain. But in the days to come, you can just upload a picture, the 3D modelling will be done by the app itself, and the “avatar” will come alive. Next time someone says, ‘see you on the other side’, you know what they mean!
