The devil is in the details

Who do you look like?

While browsing the news on abcnews.com yesterday, I came across a story about a website that could tell you which celebrities you look like. According to this story, the site, planned to be used for geneology research but currently only testing the celebrity matching part, uses the same facial recognition software that was used by law enforcement to look for terrorists at the Superbowl, among other things.

I was immensely intrigued and went to try it out right away. First of all, I wanted to know what celebrities I look like (yes, I'm vain. Shhh.) I'm generally pretty bad at making judgements about who looks like whom, so although I have certain celebrities that I think I look like, I wanted to see what the website had to say. Secondly, I am a little bit interested in the concept of facial recognition software (yes, I'm a vain nerd). I'd heard of some other potential applications (no more PIN number at the ATM!) but I'd also read that developers were having an incredibly difficult time getting the software to be able to distinguish between faces, indicating that there is something about how we recognize a face that is not easily quantifiable. Most of the software looks at facial measurements and ratios of different parts of the face to one another.

Anyway, being the scientist girl that I am, I went to the website and did a little experiment. (Warning...it wants you to set up a username/password to try it). I uploaded multiple pictures of myself to see whether a) I thought that I actually looked like any of the people it pulled up, b) whether it was consistent about who I looked like from picture to picture (did the same people pop up more than once) and c) did the list of people for each picture actually seem to have a common look themselves. (The results are below my conclusions).

Conclusions:
This software kind of sucks, although it is a fun and entertaining procrastination tool. I suppose that I am impressed that it can pick faces out of pictures without prompting, but it doesn't seem to perform particularly well or consistently. Some of the celebrities listed for different pictures might as well be a random celebrities list. It seems like the software puts an overwhelming amount of weight on one particular feature: for me, the shape of my cheeks when I smile. Most of the people have the same cheek structure. Some of the celebrities that I have always though I looked like (including the one I thought I looked like most) are on the list, while others aren't. Then again, who isn't? In the end, apparently I just really look like ME.

Okay....brainstorm for yourself which celebrity I look like before I give you the (somewhat self-depricating) lists (in order of the amount the program thinks I look like the person)...

Pic 1:
Kelly Clarkson
Christina Ricci
Sally Field
Jessica Alba
Nicky Hilton
Michael Landon
Helen Hunt
Veronica Ferres
Julianne Moore
Sarah Michelle Gellar

Pic 2:
Christopher Lambert
Sally Field
Emmy Rossum
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Juliette Binoche
Danny Kaye
Mariah Carey
Selma Blair
Rachael Leigh Cook
Rachel Hunter

Pic 3:
Dolph Lundgren
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Anna Kournikova
Glenn Close
Camilla Parker Bowles
David Attenborough
David Beckham
Ian Somerhalder
Mira Sorvina
Barak Obama

Pic 4:
Barak Obama
John Goodman
John McEnroe
Robert Duvall
Jennifer Garner
Owen Wilson
Geena Davis
Roger Federer
Cary Grant
Liam Aiken

Pic 5:
Penelope Cruz
Isabella Rossellini
Mischa Barton
Katie Holmes
Lisa Kudrow
Tata Young
Kim Basinger
Brendan Fraser
Matt Damon
Kristen Kreuk

Pic 6:
Jennifer Lopez
Rachel McAdams
Annette Bening
Shiri Appleby
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Brittany Murphy
Kimi Raikkonen
Kajol
Hillary Duff
Billy Bob Thornton

Pic 7:
Anna Nicole Smith
Joni Mitchell
Geena Davis
Alicia Silverstone
Cameron Diaz
Nigel Short
John Denver
Mikhail Barishyikov
Eric Clapton
Jodie Foster

Pic 8:
Jessica Alba
Paula Abdul
Mischa Barton
Alicia Silverstone
Britney Spears
Geena Davis
Brendan Fraser
Charlotte Church
Kristen Kreuk
Isabelle Rossellini

Pic 9:
Hee Seop Choi
Julia Roberts
Warren Beatty
Barack Obama
Steffi Graff
Liam Neeson
Geena Davis
Eva Herzigova
Arthur Ashe
Anthony Hopkins

posted by Immunegirl @ 9:20 PM