wtf is bringing-old-photos-back-to-life?

This repository contains Microsoft Research's AI system for automatically restoring old, damaged photographs. It can repair two kinds of problems: general image degradation (fading, discoloration, low quality) and physical scratches. It also applies a separate step specifically for enhancing faces, using a dedicated model trained to restore facial detail at higher quality than a general restoration pass. The system uses deep learning (specifically a type of AI called generative adversarial networks, or GANs, two neural networks competing against each other to produce realistic outputs) to translate old, degraded photo style into clean, modern-looking photo style. It was published as a research paper at CVPR 2020 (a major computer vision research conference) and later extended in a 2022 journal paper. To use it, you run a Python script pointing at a folder of old photos, specify whether they have scratches, and the system outputs restored versions. It supports both standard and high-resolution inputs. A simple graphical interface is also included for non-technical users. A Colab demo (a browser-based environment that runs the code in the cloud, no local installation needed) is available for quick testing. This is primarily a research project from Microsoft Research Asia. It requires Python 3.6 or higher and a graphics card with CUDA support (a GPU, for faster processing). The full README is longer than what was provided.