Israeli company launches tool to turn black and white photos into color

The Israeli start-up, called MyHeritage, uses the free technology MyHeritage In Color to recover images from the past and restores them with added color.

Food photography (photo credit: PASCALE PEREZ-RUBIN/HAGIT GOREN/BELLA RUDNIK)
Food photography
(photo credit: PASCALE PEREZ-RUBIN/HAGIT GOREN/BELLA RUDNIK)
An Israeli company has discovered a method to turn photos that were originally black and white into color. The Israeli start-up, called MyHeritage, uses the free technology MyHeritage In Color to recover images from the past and restore them with added color, which can be done in seconds. The photo technology is based on advanced artificial intelligence, recognizing the location and automatically imprinting a color to a specific section of the picture. 
The technology can also restore historical images that were never seen in color. MyHeritage has also gathered a repository of hundreds of millions of old images uploaded that allow users to paint them using their smartphones or website. Pictures uploaded to the MyHeritage system can also be shared with family and friends, via WhatsApp or different social networks.
The converted original images are also preserved in MyHeritage's system, if users wish to return to using those images.
 
"MyHeritage In Color's images are breathtaking. Allow millions of users to get to know their family story in depth and thereby bring our family history to life," said Gilad Japhet, founder and CEO of MyHeritage, who developed the idea by experimenting with converting his family's images to color.
"On a personal note, it was an exciting process for me to see my grandparents and their parents wearing color in front of my eyes. All my relatives with whom I shared the images were also excited, both adults and young people. It's a process that changes the way we see our ancestors. Our ancestors come to life. I believe that millions of people today will realize, thanks to MyHeritage In Color, how much fun and enjoyable our family history can be," Japhet noted.