Ancient Roman emperors' faces have been brought to life in digital reconstructions; the unnervingly realistic image project includes the Emperors Caligula, Nero and Hadrian, among others. The features of these long-dead rulers have been preserved in hundreds of sculptures, but even the most detailed carvings can't convey what these men truly looked like when they were alive. To explore that, Canadian cinematographer and virtual reality designer Daniel Voshart used machine learning -- computer algorithms that learn through experience -- in a neural network, a computing system processes information through hierarchies of nodes that communicate in a manner similar to neurons in a brain. In the neural net, called Artbreeder, algorithms analyzed about 800 busts to model more realistic facial shapes, features, hair and skin, and to add vivid color. Voshart then fine-tuned Artbreeder's models using Photoshop, adding details gleaned from coins, artworks and written descriptions of the emperors from historical texts, to make the portraits really come to life.

Some people have spent their quarantine downtime baking sourdough bread. But others -- namely Toronto-based artist Daniel Voshart -- have created painstaking portraits of all 54 Roman emperors of the Principate period, which spanned from 27 BC to 285 AD. The portraits help people visualize what the Roman emperors would have looked like when they were alive. Included are Voshart's best artistic guesses of the faces of emperors Augustus, Nero, Caligula, Marcus Aurelius and Claudius, among others. They don't look particularly heroic or epic -- rather, they look like regular people, with craggy foreheads, receding hairlines and bags under their eyes. To make the portraits, Voshart used a design software called Artbreeder, which relies on a kind of artificial intelligence called generative adversarial networks (GANs).

As most of the world's populations are under strict quarantine, countless individuals are stuck in their own homes and are rendered immobile for long periods of time. With the imposed isolation, many have taken this opportunity to rediscover themselves through hobbies, some hustled to earn much needed extra cash, while some went on to spiritual journeys and mental health breaks that they have long planned but got no time for it. It may sound too much positivity but the pandemic may have presented an opportunity to discover talents and the likes. Well, that's the case for a designer and his supposed project that he decided to work on during the pandemic. Daniel Voshart, a virtual reality specialist for films, started working on the aforementioned project for most of his jobs in different companies that were postponed due to the pandemic.

Sculpted busts give us an idea of what ancient Roman emperors looked like, but what if they had posed for photo portraits? That's what designer/cinematographer Daniel Voshart explores using AI and Photoshop in his Roman Emperor Project. After gathering 800 images of busts found online, Voshart used the neural-network tool Artbreeder, historical research, and his Photoshop skills to turn them into photo-realistic portraits of 54 emperors of The Principate (27 BC to 285 AD). "Artistic interpretations are, by their nature, more art than science but I've made an effort to cross-reference their appearance (hair, eyes, ethnicity, etc.) to historical texts and coinage," Voshart writes in a Medium post explaining the project. "I've striven to age them according to the year of death -- their appearance prior to any major illness."

Machine learning is a fantastic tool for renovating old photos and videos. So much so that it can even bring ancient statues to life, transforming the chipped stone busts of long-dead Roman emperors into photorealistic faces you could imagine walking past on the street. The portraits are the creation of designer Daniel Voshart, who describes the series as a quarantine project that got a bit out of hand. Primarily a VR specialist in the film industry, Voshart's work projects got put on hold because of COVID-19, and so he started exploring a hobby of his: colorizing old statues. Looking for suitable material to transform, he began working his way through Roman emperors. He finished his initial depictions of the first 54 emperors in July, but this week, he released updated portraits and new posters for sale.