GHOST 2.0: Advanced Head Transfer Technology Opens Up New Possibilities

Face-swapping technology has made significant progress in recent years, finding applications in various fields, from the entertainment industry to medical research. However, a related but significantly more complex area, the swapping of entire heads, has remained largely unexplored. GHOST 2.0, a novel procedure, now addresses this challenge and promises to significantly improve the state of the art in head transfer technology.

Unlike face swapping, which primarily focuses on the facial area, head transfer requires consideration of additional factors. Preserving the entire head structure, including hair and head shape, as well as the seamless integration of the transferred head into the target background, pose particular challenges. GHOST 2.0 addresses these difficulties with a two-stage approach, consisting of an improved aligner model and a specialized blender module.

The aligner model is responsible for the precise reenactment of the head. It preserves identity features across different scales and is robust against extreme head pose variations. This model enables the transfer of head movement and facial expressions to the target head, while preserving the individual identity of the source head. The improved robustness against different head poses is crucial for realistic and convincing results.

The blender module ensures the harmonious integration of the reenacted head into the target background. This involves not only adjusting skin tones but also seamlessly filling any gaps between the transferred head and the background. This step is essential to avoid artifacts and achieve a natural-looking result. The ability to handle even complex cases, such as large differences in the hairstyles of the source and target, underscores the power of the blender module.

GHOST 2.0 has been evaluated using various benchmarks and has shown superior results compared to existing methods in all tests. The combination of the improved aligner model and the blender module enables realistic and convincing head transfer, significantly exceeding the current state of the art. The developers of GHOST 2.0 have made the source code publicly available to promote further research and development in this promising area.

Head transfer technology holds great potential for various applications. In the film and game industry, actors could be digitally aged, or their performances could be simulated in different scenarios. In the medical field, the technology could be used for simulating surgeries or creating realistic prostheses. In the field of virtual reality, avatars could be enhanced with more realistic head models.

GHOST 2.0 represents a significant advance in the field of head transfer. The combination of precise reenactment and seamless integration enables realistic and convincing results, opening up new possibilities for various application areas. Future research will show the true potential of this technology and how it will influence our daily lives.

Bibliography: - https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.18417 - https://arxiv.org/html/2502.18417v1 - https://github.com/ai-forever/ghost - https://paperreading.club/page?id=287240 - https://www.academia.edu/98731797/GHOST_A_New_Face_Swap_Approach_for_Image_and_Video_Domains - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362515501_A_New_Face_Swap_Approach_for_Image_and_Video_Domains - https://chatpaper.com/chatpaper/de?id=4&date=1740499200&page=1 - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/6287639/9668973/09851423.pdf - https://airi.net/articles/ghost-a-new-face-swap-approach-for-image-and-video-domains/