Slashdot Mirror
Algorithms Can Make You Pretty
caffeinemessiah writes "The New York Times has an interesting story on a new algorithm by researchers from Tel Aviv University that modifies a facial picture of a person to conform to standards of attractiveness. Based on a digital library of pictures of people who have been judged 'attractive,' the algorithm finds the nearest match and modifies an input picture so it conforms to the 'attractive' person's proportions. The trick, however, is that the resultant pictures are still recognizable as the original person. Here's a quick link to a representative picture of the process. Note that this is a machine-learning approach to picture modification, not a characterization of beauty, and could just as easily be used to make a person less attractive." Note: As reader Trent Waddington points out, the underlying research was mentioned in an earlier story as well.
ah, i guess criticizing the focus of this research means i'm promoting censorship. what was i thinking? i should be forbidden from making negative remarks about slashdot stories. or maybe we should just outlaw critical opinions altogether.
nice straw man!
there are plenty of much more useful applications for machine learning algorithms. but these researchers chose an area of research with a very limited range of useful applications. by definition this research is useless. what are the other useful applications of Data-Driven Enhancement of Facial Attractiveness?