NEW YORK — Pornhub announced today the launch of “Remastured,” a project that employs advanced AI technology to restore and colorize vintage erotic films.
The “Remastured” campaign is a collaborative initiative with creative agency Officer & Gentleman and creative studio Espada Santacruz.
Pornhub, a rep explained, “used machine learning and over 100,000 adult videos and images from its library to colorize vintage porn for today’s modern audience.”
“Viewers are transported back in time to experience century-old erotic films featuring voluptuous Victorians and silent seducers in titillating technicolor with 'The Remastured Film Library,'” added the rep.
Turn-of-the-Century Bush
“Since the moment someone figured out how to record moving images, people have been making adult movies,” the rep said. “We thought it was important to not only preserve but modernize these films, and we are very excited to include this selection of artfully restored vintage material to our library, allowing users to indulge in old-school erotica from a bygone era.”
The company noted that although it is common practice in film to colorize and restore even the most antique footage, the available algorithms “are lacking since standard deep-learning models are trained with millions of SFW images, not nude or even pornographic ones.”
By introducing the AI to Pornhub's massive content library, the rep continued, “it learned a naughty new trick — how to detect the subtle shades of penises, nipples and turn-of-the-century bush.”
A Commitment to Smut's History
"The Remastured Film Library" features a collection of 20 visually restored scenes ranging from the 1890s to the 1940s, featuring the work of film pioneers like Thomas Edison and George Méliès and elaborate plots of the modern porn aficionado's favorite categories — 'co-eds,' 'masseurs,' 'orgies,' 'threesomes,' 'foursomes,' 'spankings,' 'cosplay,' 'strap-ons' and more.
The restoration process included preparation of images (noise reduction, sharpening and contrasting), colorizing using deep learning, boosting to 60 frames per second (FPS), re-scaling to crisp 4K resolution, digital remastering (cleaning artifacts, stabilization and flickering reduction) and remastering audio or adding a new audio track.
Pornhub's history of supporting the preservation of early erotic films includes partnerships with the Museum of Sex in New York City, Maccarone fine art gallery in Los Angeles and the online premiere of “Shakedown,” the critically-acclaimed documentary art film centered around the Black lesbian stripper scene in early oughts Los Angeles by filmmaker and vanguard artist Leilah Weinraub.
For more information on “The Remastured Library,” click here and follow Pornhub on Twitter.
