C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures has developed a piece of software that may be useful beyond its original purpose. A team consisting solely of c.o.r.e.’s director of research and development, Berj Bannayan, and senior software developer, Leo Chan, has developed software that convincingly ages children on a computer. The nameless product (which Bannayan simply refers to as ‘Age’) is currently part of the Timescape exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre.

The software is part of a demonstration whereby a child from the audience (with a target age of between five and 10) marches on the stage and has a digital picture taken of him/herself. The image is then processed through the software, resulting in a 30-second animation which shows the child gradually aging until the image contorts into that of a person in their 60s.

‘This is a very different development effort for us,’ says Bannayan. ‘It was definitely something new and novel for c.o.r.e.. so it’s quite an exciting project.’

After being approached by the Science Centre, Bannayan and Chan spent a great deal of time researching the finer points of the human face.

‘We did lots of picture taking and there was a lot of study about what happens to skin,’ Bannayan says, ‘the color of the skin, the shape of skin and the muscles – all these things underlying the aging process.’

Although Bannayan says in its current incarnation the aging software cannot be used for the purposes of special effects for film, the main thrust of c.o.r.e.’s business, he says the possibility is there.

‘It could possibly branch off into film work,’ says Bannayan. ‘The theory behind it all is fairly sound in terms of other applications, but we would need to do more research if we were to, for instance, age a moving person.’

Aside from potential applications in film, Bannayan says there are other possible uses for the software. He says he has been contacted by the Metro Toronto Police force about the possibility of using the aging program to age pictures of missing children. c.o.r.e. has also reportedly been in talks with the head of cranial and facial surgery at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

‘They do a lot of reconstructive surgery on children so there are also possible applications in that field where we can show how a reconstructed face [might look], or how a face will change, or just allow the doctors to see the effects of their work,’ says Bannayan.

c.o.r.e. has also been in touch with a number of science museums in the u.s., which apparently have been searching the world over for software that can do what the aging software does.

‘It’s something people know about now,’ says Bannayan. ‘There are possibilities outside of what we have originally done with it.’

As for how it works exactly, Bannayan only offers, ‘That’s a secret.’