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Scene from the police video: The dead boy's face goes around the world
Photo: Politie.NL / dpa
Almost 20 years after his violent death, the Dutch police digitally brought a teenager to life in a video - and then received dozens of tips.
The investigators announced on Monday that the method was a "world premiere".
The large number of indications is "very positive," said a spokeswoman for the Rotterdam police.
How helpful these are, however, still needs to be checked.
In the video, which was shown on television and posted online, Sedar Soares, who died in Rotterdam in 2003 at the age of 13, can be seen in lifelike computer animation.
In the video, Soares — or his digital counterpart — picks up a soccer ball and walks past a line of family members, former classmates, teachers and teammates on his soccer team.
Some of them touch the teenager's shoulder, who appears to have been revived with a mix of digital technology and acting.
"He wanted to be a professional footballer," says his sister Janet in the video.
'The dream is gone.
Because Sedar isn't alive anymore.' In order to finally get the truth, Sedar was 'brought to life especially for this film'.
And then the boy, together with his sister, seems to appeal to the viewers: »Do you know more?
Then speak now.'
The police are hoping for new witnesses
In February 2003, while he was having a snowball fight with friends in a parking lot, Sedar Soares was shot at.
A little later he died in the hospital.
Police were initially convinced the teenager had been killed for throwing snowballs at a vehicle, according to TV channel NOS.
But now investigators think it's likely Soares was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Uninvolved, he could have become the victim of a robbery by a criminal gang on another gang, it is said.
In any case, the police hope that those who know about the possible robbery will now report - or eyewitnesses who have so far remained silent.
The unusual police video is currently circulating on the Internet with the indication that it is a so-called "deepfake".
However, the clip from the Netherlands is probably not a classic "deepfake" in the sense of other Internet videos that have established this category, no matter how broadly the term is now used.
A photo as a basis
With the "deepfake" technique, it is possible to use artificial intelligence (AI) to realistically insert real people's faces into photos or films - and make them say things they didn't say.
Facebook, for example, once defined "deepfakes" as manipulations using "sophisticated tools that use artificial intelligence or deep learning techniques to create videos that distort reality."
In order for such "deepfakes" to appear realistic, many images or videos of the person concerned are required as source material.
In the case from the Netherlands, however, according to the police, only a photo of Sedar Soares was used as the basis for the video.
In addition, a large part of the video was elaborately staged with real people who volunteered to be filmed.
The alleged fake reveals itself anyway through the video content – as a staging complete with computer tricks.
The Rotterdam police emphasized that they developed the video together with the family of the boy who was killed.
"We are convinced that it can also affect people in the criminal environment," it says.
"That witnesses and maybe the perpetrator will come forward."
mboe/dpa/AFP
