Bing Edwards / Ars Technica
Swedish researcher in machine learning Emile Wallner released a free web tool called plank. fm It automatically colorizes black and white photos using artificial intelligence. After uploading the image, users can choose the color filter or enhance the colors with a written text description.
Palette.fm uses a deep learning model for image classification, which makes initial guesses about the colors of objects in an image or illustration. “I built a custom AI model that uses image and text to create coloring,” Wallner wrote in a letter to Ars. “One form generates the text and the other takes the image and text to generate the coloring.”
After uploading an image, the site’s nifty interface provides a discretionary explanation (description) of what he thinks he sees in the image. If you don’t like any of the preset color filters, you can click the pencil icon to edit the caption yourself, which Draw model coloring using a text prompt.
To test it, we took a picture of a small pumpkin and removed the color using Photoshop. Then we loaded the black and white version and experimented with choosing the preset filters Palette.fm provides. Once we found a good filter, we edited the caption to improve the colors by describing the objects in the scene. For example, Palette.fm originally thought the pumpkin was a “claw” and did not recognize the pavement. But once these terms were put into the written prompt, the colors made a lot more sense. We later enhanced the image (not depicted in the example below) by selecting “green leaves” in the background.
Bing Edwards / Ars Technica
For now, Palette.fm is available as a free service, but Wallner is planning to add a paid option. The site processes the images online, in the cloud. As far as the privacy of uploaded photos is concerned, Palette.fm reads, “We do not store your photos.” But as with any cloud service, take that with caution regarding private photos. Refreshingly, Palette.fm does not require any kind of user account registration at this time.
So far, Palette.fm is delighting people Hackernews who used the tool to colorize pictures of beloved relatives, historical photos, and more. A variation on Wallner’s coloring technology is also available as a file bot on Twitter Since late last year. Enjoy coloring.
