Could AI make all our old blurry photos clear?

In this example, the algorithm reworked a 64x64 pixel image into a near perfect 1024x1024 pixels. — AFP Relaxnews

Google has revealed that it is working on a new technology that will considerably improve the rendering of certain low-definition images. Algorithms allow thumbnails to be transformed into perfectly sharp high-resolution images. Deployed on a large scale, this type of technology could enable countless poor-quality pictures to be ‘saved’.

An optimisation algorithm, called SR3 (for “Super-Resolution via Repeated Refinements”) is responsible for improving the image through various successive steps, gradually adding Gaussian noise or deleting certain details. Over the course of the experiments, thanks to machine learning, the image is then refined and Google’s teams are now able to reproduce perfectly clear high-resolution images from very low-resolution shots.