WELL, NOT quite, but leading scientists at St Andrews University have just presented the world with a computer-generated image of how the “King of Rock” would have looked if he had reached his 70th birthday today.

The work is the product of psychologists and computer scientists at the university, who have revealed their masterpiece as one of the the singing legend’s all-time favourites, Jailhouse Rock, has been re-released to coincide with the anniversary.

Dr Bernard Tiddeman and Professor David Perrett have used special software in the “perception lab” to reproduce the natural effects of ageing, taking into account changes in skin texture, hairline and hair colour.

They have left Elvis, who died at 42, with his trademark raven mane intact and they have mimicked the process of growing older by changing the texture and shape of the original image to simulate the changes in the skin that would occur between the ages of 40 and 70.

The team has previously created aged images of Hollywood stars Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, who both suddenly died young. Last year they created an image of how John Lennon might have looked had he lived to be 64.

Although a previous aged image of Elvis illustrated a grey haired King, no attempt was made this time to change his hair colour.

“In the newly generated image there was no attempt to change the appearance of the hair. Indeed Elvis, in common with many celebrities may have chosen to use artificial hair and hair colour.

“While plastic surgery is often used to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, the underlying skin texture and blotchy appearance may still give away the age of a person’s face” said Professor Perrett.

The same software can also change the face in other ways, such as altering apparent sex, race or even perceived personality attributes, and it can also produce artificial art using blends of portraits.

Another highly practical use can be with missing person inquiries, particularly involving people who have been missing for many years and will look considerably different.

Anyone brave enough to see how they might look in the future can use simplified software to transform their own image at the Perception Lab’s webpage: http://www.perceptionlab. com

Professor Perrett specialises in how the visual system recognises facial attributes and previous research has examined facial symmetry and attractiveness. He is head of the Perception Laboratory, which develops software to manipulate facial images.

Dr Tiddeman extended the software to model skin texture while working in the Perception Laboratory and is now a lecturer in computer science specialising in computer graphics.

Meanwhile, Elvis is set for another number one record as the re-release of Jailhouse Rock is almost certain to top the chart. It will give Elvis his 19th number one 27 years after his death.

Latest figures show he is outselling nearest rival Steve Brookstein by 3500 copies.

Jailhouse Rock first topped the charts on January 24, 1958.

Record label SonyBMG is releasing every one of his 18 chart-toppers to mark his 70th birthday.

If he knocks X Factor crooner Brookstein off the top spot Elvis will bag the 999th number one since the chart began. He is also vying to make history by scoring the 1000th.

Monday sees the re-release of his 1959 chart-topper One Night/I Got Stung, followed the next week by A Fool Such As I/I Need Your Love Tonight.