Genealogy website MyHeritage has unveiled a bizarre new online tool that can animate old photos of deceased family members. 

The free deepfake technology, called Deep Nostalgia, takes any photo and animates the subject's face – with strangely realistic and unsettling results. 

Examples provided by MyHeritage show historical figures, including Queen Victoria, Mark Twain and Florence Nightingale, come to life. 

MyHeritage says the tech gives history 'a fresh new perspective' by producing a depiction of how a person 'could have moved and looked if captured on video'. 

It's been developed by researchers at Israel-based firm D-ID, which specialises in video reenactment using deep learning.  

Anyone can use the tool on the Deep Nostalgia webpage by uploading or drag-and-dropping an image – although to see the results you'll need a MyHeritage account. 

'You'll have a 'wow moment' when you see a treasured family photo come to life with Deep Nostalgia,' said Gilad Japhet, founder and CEO of MyHeritage. 

'Seeing our beloved ancestors' faces come to life in a video simulation lets us imagine how they might have been in reality, and provides a profound new way of connecting to our family history.' 

Deep Nostalgia uses several pre-recorded 'driver videos' – normal videos of living people performing simple gestures and face movements.