Twitter user @tg_bomze has released a brand new tool that claims to take low-resolution, pixelated pictures and reverse engineer them into full, high-resolution images. Currently, the Face Depixelizer only works on faces, as the name suggests, and some viewers have decided to take this software and apply it to their favorite video game characters, with some hilariously disturbing results.
Bomze originally announced the Face Depixelizer as a way to recreate and enhance heavily pixelated images, which some onlookers took a certain amount of issue with, considering how pixelating photos is a common censorship technique for protecting identities. However, turning away from the ethical issues of this type of technology, others saw this as an opportunity to get a realistic look at the face behind the classic Mario design, among others.
Some of the most haunting images come from the tool attempting to create realistic renders of Doomguy, Link, and Mario by approximating their unpixelated faces. Most of these pictures come straight from the deepest reaches of the uncanny valley, while others almost seem like they aren’t trying as they superimpose faces onto blurry outlines of classic monsters and demons. Needless to say, the program’s suggested prowess at unpixelating pictures may still have some kinks to work out, as in many cases it just blurs that image and slaps a similar enough looking face wherever it feels most fitting.
The above images are only a taste of some of the worst attempts to unpixelate images from classic games or just images that were never of real human faces to begin with. That being said, even when the tool is given heavily pixelated versions of photos of real people, it seems to have a habit of missing the mark regardless. So, anyone who wants to see what popular characters from their favorite pixelated games might look like in a high-res format, the wait might still be a bit longer as the technology just doesn’t seem to be there yet.
Thanks in part to the popularity of classic games for both those who lived through those eras and those who look on it with nostalgia, there is plenty of pixel art to run through the Face Depixelizer. However, it should be noted that under the hilariously disturbing failings of the tool to render video game characters, there are a number of issues that commenters are rising in replies to Bomze’s tool. Namely, the security risks of the program and the fact that it tends to lean towards recreating primarily Caucasian faces, which some cite as reason enough to delete the Face Depixelizer completely and end the project immediately.
Source: Twitter
