
Deepfakes in realtime using WebRTC - nalef88
https://www.aphrodite.ai/
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aphroditeai
(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 :-)

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mirimir
Ummm, no camera and no WebRTC here ;)

So are there video examples?

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

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singularity2001
Thanks a ton.

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

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mirimir
Well, that wouldn't help me. Because without WebRTC, their page doesn't load
anything. At least for me, in heavily tweaked Firefox.

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gregjw
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.

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aphroditeai
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?

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sharemywin
your going to probably need celebrities OK to use their likeness.

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aphroditeai
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

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aphroditeai
Please see this thread for more information on our system:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17949679](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17949679)

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jstarfish
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.)

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sdrothrock
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.

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DEADBEEFC0FFEE
Unfortunately the term deepfake is horribly loaded in negative ways.

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sdrothrock
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."

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aphroditeai
thanks. Looking into fixing the subdomain issue.

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

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sdrothrock
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](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)

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aphroditeai
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?

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sdrothrock
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

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kozen23
This is really fun. I hope the quality improves at some point.

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aphroditeai
Yes, we are definitively working on that! Stay tuned for updates coming very
soon.

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dvfjsdhgfv
Honestly, it looks like a site dedicated to tricking people into giving away
their credit card data.

~~~
aphroditeai
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?

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underlines
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.

~~~
aphroditeai
thanks!

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nalef88
Free use using coupon HACKERNEWS

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underlines
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.

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aphroditeai
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?

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underlines
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

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aphroditeai
thanks. And a change should be very visible and only take less than a second.
We will look into this.

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notoriousjpg
Reached its capacity limit

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aphroditeai
We are getting quite a burst due to being on HN front page. Please try again
in 5-10 minutes. Thanks!

