Synchronizing the movement of your lips to someone else’s vocals is nothing new.
It was a key plot point in the classic movie Singin’ in the Rain (which, while we’re reviewing things, also comes highly recommended!).
It was how performers on all the old musical television shows like “American Bandstand” and “Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Beechnut Show” performed live. For an example of a particularly egregious example of lip-syncing instead of singing live, take a look at Bobby Darin performing his smash hit “Splish Splash” in 1959.
It took down the popular “singing” duo Milli Vanilli back in the early 90s.
It helped cement Jimmy Fallon’s status as a beloved goofball.
It served as the basis for an entire tv competition show created by that guy who played Jim on “The Office.”
And, of course, it’s something we’ve all done before, in one context or another—for a social media post, for fun, as a joke, etc. If you’ve always considered yourself a master lip-sync artist, there’s now a Google A.I. experiment that can help you put your money where your mouth is—so to speak.
The website, called LipSync, puts Javascript code to the test of grading your lip-sync skills. As the website explains, LipSync “detects landmarks on your face using machine learning.” All you need is an internet connection, a device with a camera, and a keen ability to dispense with all shame for the duration of your performance.
This game/activity/novelty is one of Google’s “A.I. Experiments.” That means it’s not a full-fledged game, but rather a way for computer scientists to turn their coding skills into something fun and accessible.
While everyone can put their lip-sync skills to the test by singing the song “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I, all the computer scientists out there can access the source code and continue the experiment themselves. You can also read more about the software developer’s process.
For the record, this author scored a mildly embarrassing 3.5 out of 5 stars.