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The Algorithm That 'Sees' Beauty In Photographic Portraits
KentuckyFC (1144503) writes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But what if the beholder is a machine? Scientists from Yahoo Labs in Barcelona have trained a machine learning algorithm to pick out beautiful photographic portraits from a collection of not-so-beautiful ones. They began with a set of 10,000 portraits that have been rated by humans and then allowed the algorithm to "learn" the difference by taking into account personal factors such as the age, sex and race of the subject as well as technical factors such as the sharpness of the image, the exposure and the contrast between the face and the background and so on. The trained algorithm was then able to reliably pick out the most beautiful portraits. Curiously, the algorithm does this by ignoring personal details such as age, sex, race, eye colour and so on and instead focuses only on technical details such as sharpness, exposure and contrast. The team say this suggests that any subject can be part of a stunning portrait regardless of their looks. It also suggests that "perfect portrait" algorithms could be built in to the next generation of cameras, rather like the smile-capturing algorithms of today."
Now all pictures will tend to be the same with the algorithm telling the amateur photographer how to frame the shot.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
Except during the 1920s, when the ratio was closer to 1, and during Rueben's time when, well... and actually are you sure about that "the world over" thing? Or even in just America? I mean, look at different cultures within the US.
Definitions of physical beauty are constantly changing, and seem to be inherently based upon social, not biological, processes.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.