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Colourful past: Hong Kong artists use AI software to transform 1950s photo into life-size image for Central Market display
- Original black and white photo of two fishmongers behind market counter restored, colourised using software trained by processing millions of images
- Urban Renewal Authority unveils display on Monday, with plans for interactive installation to be revealed later on
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A tattered photo of a fish stall at Hong Kong’s Central Market from the 1950s has been restored using artificial intelligence-based software and turned into a life-size wall display at the 84-year-old building to mark the second anniversary of its reopening.
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The original black and white photo provided by the Hong Kong Museum of History featured two fishmongers standing behind a counter piled with chopped-up fish, the Urban Renewal Authority said.
The life-size restored image, laid out on the wall of a restored fish stall on the market’s ground floor, was unveiled to the public on Monday.
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“The picture was very tattered and blurry when I first received it,” said Victor Wong Wang-tat, the award-winning digital and special effects artist who lead the authority’s restoration project.
Wong and his team trained the AI-based restorative software using millions of photographs, teaching the system how to fill in any blanks or damage to the image to create a highly detailed, colourised version.
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