A new technology that I find interesting is the deep fake technology. For those of us that don’t know what deep fake technology is, it is the ability to map the movement and facial features of an individual to produce a video that can be nearly indistinguishable from the original. The concept of deep fake technology is rather new and has only shown real potential for such believable fakes in recent years through movies. I have seen a shift however in the usability of dep fake tech come into the hands of anyone who wants to use it through free iPhone and computer apps. While the technology itself is fascinating it has been questioned for the danger it can potentially cause. From fake porn videos to successfully recording a video of a former president of the united states without the former president being in the area or without his knowledge.
I think the technology has great potential in the design industry for the use of mockups. As it becomes more accessible to the general public I can see it moving in the direction of creating mock-ups for event spaces or building designs. Imagine being able to place clients or the models, or pop stars into space without them needing to be present. This technology could be utilized in both real space and spaces that only exist on the computer.
At our current point in time, it is useful because of our pandemic situation, but I think this use will only continue to grow and the technology for it will only continue to improve and become cheaper. This nightmare covid situation will leave the world with shadows of the struggles we had to deal with, from seeing more masks generally warn in the flue-season months to the desire to not meet in face to face unless you’re close friends or family. And as we continue to move into a technology-heavy future, it’ll be more and more important to be able to successfully integrate an individual into the digital world for things like mock-ups to game development and simulations. We are already seeing strides in VR and character designs are beginning to explore the uncanny valley of human design. Soon your real-life body and virtual avatar will be indistinguishable from one another. How crazy would that be?
