NVIDIA’s AI Can Turn Normal Video Into High-Quality Slow Motion

NVIDIA researchers have created a new AI system that can turn standard 30fps video into high-quality slow-motion that looks like it was actually shot at higher frame rates with a high-speed camera. The 1.5-minute video above has demos and comparisons showing what the AI can create.

“There are many memorable moments in your life that you might want to record with a camera in slow-motion because they are hard to see clearly with your eyes: the first time a baby walks, a difficult skateboard trick, a dog catching a ball,” the researchers write in their research paper. “While it is possible to take 240-frame-per-second videos with a cell phone, recording everything at high frame rates is impractical, as it requires large memories and is power-intensive for mobile devices.”

So instead of documenting all of life with slow motion cameras, the idea is that people could enjoy the benefits of viewing memories in slow motion while only shooting ordinary video.

The researchers trained their AI on over 11,000 videos of sports and everyday life, shot at 240 frames per second. The large archive of actual slow-motion footage allowed the AI to learn how to predict extra frames and imagine them out of thin air.

To turn ordinary video into slow-motion video, the AI as many “missing frames” between actual frames as needed to achieve the desired frame rate.

“Our method can generate multiple intermediate frames that are spatially and temporally coherent,” the researchers state. “Our multi-frame approach consistently outperforms state-of-the-art single frame methods.”

“The method can take everyday videos of life’s most precious moments and slow them down to look like your favorite cinematic slow-motion scenes, adding suspense, emphasis, and anticipation,” NVIDIA writes.