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Microsoft Tries To Guess Relatives With "Twins or Not"

mikejuk writes: Hot on the heels of their popular "How Old Do I Look" website, Microsoft has released a tool called "Twins or Not." Powered by Microsoft’s Project Oxford Face API, the site lets people upload a pair of photos to the web and get back a similarity score. In a blog post Mat Velloso, Senior Software Development Engineer at the Technical Evangelism Development group at Microsoft, talks about how he put the program together in just four hours.

53 comments

  1. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's probably related to Xbox. Some day, Kinect will scan you and say "Hey, AC, want to play age-appropriate game with your young sister who I see is sitting next to you?" or "Hey, AC, your parents say you can't watch this movie without an older relative present."

  2. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by viperidaenz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because they're developing facial recognition algorithms, and launching fun websites is a way to get a variety of real-world inputs and increase their test data.

  3. Insert free advert for MICROS~! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's all she wrote ...

  4. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My prediction: People will do things like compare their own face to Obama or something. Then, post it on social media. Because: laughter.

    (Also compare it to famous hollywood people's faces.)

  5. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by ModernGeek · · Score: 2

    It will be a good headline whenever the the inevitable celebrity love-child finds his or her father through this tool.

    --
    Sig: I stole this sig.
  6. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Hey AC, I see you're underage, want to change the parental settings to let you play that mature game you love?"

    If microsoft thinks some camera software will prevents kids from getting their "candy", they are wrong.

  7. Caitlyn Jenner & Jessica Lange Twin Score: 93% by theodp · · Score: 3, Funny
  8. Re:What's next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Nah, probably match the selfie to the dick-pic.

  9. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by Karganeth · · Score: 1

    well they say they dont keep the photos, and they're useless to train any algorithm because you dont input whether you are related or not.

  10. here is the missing link from the summary by Noah+Haders · · Score: 2

    hot old do I look website: http://how-old.net/
    twins or not website: http://twinsornot.net/

    i didn't try the second one, but I tried the how old and it was pretty neat. MS has some smart people at microsoft research, and the PHBs seem to be doing the right thing and giving these people latitude to do their own thing their own way.

  11. Slashdotted, now how busy is that site Mat? by Ropati · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mat notes how Azure is handling the load after the first few hours:

    http://www.matvelloso.com/2015...

    Mat,

    How is the load, now that you've been Slashdotted?

    Is this still within a personal budget?

    How about a report on how much this would cost the average Joe if he put it in the cloud and it went viral? Do you have a cost graph to go with the rest of the Azure Web App?

    If you are going to chortle about the ease of Azure, perhaps you should be more specific about the pricing. I love the ease, but I fear the the cost.

    Ropati

    --
    machinator omnis sine licentia
    1. Re:Slashdotted, now how busy is that site Mat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      According to the article you linked, "the S3 pricing tier the server is sitting comfortably with 13% CPU usage and just one instance". He also turned on auto-scale which will deploy more instances if needed (with Azure, auto-scale is turned off by default).

      According to the Microsoft Azure rate card, an S3 instance is $0.2035/hr which is approximately ~$152 per month.

      Assuming the application scales linearly (it appears to), 230,000 = 13% CPU (from the article you linked), the application is CPU-bound, and a server maxes out at 90%, it will cost him approximately $152 per 1.5 million users. Is this within a personal budget? Definitely.

    2. Re:Slashdotted, now how busy is that site Mat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you really cared, you would stop being so fucking lazy. Don't expect the world to do your research for you. Lazy shit

  12. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 2

    This could lead to an era where your age on your registered account is used for censorship, rather than a parent getting the ability to leave TV-MA banned after a kid turns 18... remember kids, set a password you don't know and lock your TV on "receives everything" before your parent gets to take it out of the box.

  13. Re:How far Slashdot has fallen... by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

    Microsoft Press Release converted into Slashdot story has been around here for over two decades....

  14. Re:Caitlyn Jenner & Jessica Lange Twin Score: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even Stranger:
    http://imgbox.com/HyjLlrdA

    Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer are "Definitely related" according to this software.

    I'm guessing that this has some massive (accidental?) selection bias going on.
    They are definitely solving something with this, but I'm guessing it's not nearly as accurate in wider selections.

    Hrmm....

    -S

  15. Just 4 hours by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    By reusing massive amounts of code and an infrastructure already built to do this sort of thing.

    The Minecraftification of IT continues.

    1. Re: Just 4 hours by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, really. I read the blog entry because "holy shit, four hours?" Then it became clear from his 3-paragraph post that he had downloaded and API demo and changed a few lines of it to do comparisons instead of... whatever it was doing before.

      Plus no testing, etc.

      At this point, I'm starting to wonder why it took him /as mush as/ four hours...

  16. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    Turns out this was some guy at Microsoft playing around, only spending 4 hours developing, testing a releasing.
    Probably a good investment of 4 hours considering the publicity they'll get.

  17. Fascinating. by sootman · · Score: 1

    So anyway, why is it that when I click the Xs on the boxes in the right column, they're back next time I come to the homepage? Since the polls aren't there anymore, there's really nothing I need to have in that column at all.

    Yeah, I know, off topic, but where else can I ask?

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  18. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by Rockoon · · Score: 1

    and they're useless to train any algorithm because you dont input whether you are related or not.

    ..you appear to think that modern AI algorithms need labeled data...

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  19. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because they're developing facial recognition algorithms, and launching fun websites is a way to get a variety of real-world inputs and increase their test data.

    the sheeple are so fucking stupid they will say "ooh shiny!" and not realize what they are assisting and how intrusively it can be used against them for profit

  20. Triplets !! by invictusvoyd · · Score: 3, Funny

    I gots positive match for an image of a giant turd and the Microsoft logo . It also matched Bono from U2.

  21. Such nice trojans by ruir · · Score: 1

    for NSA to link your gmail ID to your face worldwide. I sincerely hope "terrorists" play those games.

  22. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by cavreader · · Score: 1

    It may be a fun site but they are also show casing their new Oxford API which does tie in to their business model.

  23. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Haha, it's the kids who censor the computer for the parents.

  24. Clone detector in action ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Launching fun sites is one thing

    Launching sites that do not conform to the core business is a waste of money, waste of time, waste of efforts

    Dude, you just couldn't be more wrong!!

    Microsoft has always been a vital sidekick for the BIG BROTHER and they will do everything to please the BIG BROTHER, including but not limited to incorporate NSA backdoors as un-announced feature of their software

    Now that BIG BROTHER needs to have more heads up on human cloning, this new "twins or not" site from Microsoft, no matter how much fun it seems to be, will offer BIG BROTHER the chance to identify, tag and potentially track all cases of human cloning activities around the world

    BIG BROTHER ftw!!

  25. Only goes to show that peak useful-software-ideas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    has long since passed. A belated farewell and a hi-de-ho.

    Just give me the bong already!
    Or shoot me!
    Am I a horse or a dude, or maybe, just maybe, a chick. Na, no way I'm a chick.

  26. Does not support genitals by Mike+Sheen · · Score: 2

    I tried, and it only accepts faces. Don't ask.

    1. Re:Does not support genitals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      draw a face on them first!

  27. 4 hours ... bullshit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If the code is not tested, it is not finished.

    1. Re:4 hours ... bullshit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They skipped the step where the analyst takes the requirements from the customer and brings them to the software engineer.

  28. Steve Ballmer & Uncle Fester by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    TWINS

  29. Someone try Luke and Leia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let software weight in on the whole mess...

  30. Re:Caitlyn Jenner & Jessica Lange Twin Score: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Once when a friend of mine happened to get his hair cut at my regular place the barber thought it was me and called my friend by my name.

    We had a good laugh about it. But then later that year when our 11th grade class photograph was published in the school magazine our class teacher had captioned both of us with my name.

    Found a pic of the guy now (wow, a reason for Facebook), uploaded it to the Twins Or Not? site with a recent pic of myself, and it said:
    Twin score: 27%, we can see some resemblance.

    Was kinda hoping it would be higher, we've probably diverged somewhat over the past 20 years.

  31. It's a TRAP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As with anything else where some company, whether a start-up or an archaic behemoth like Misrosoft, (makers of miserable software, hence the name,) wants you to upload photographs of your face...

    IT'S. A. TRAP. They want a picture of your face, and the associated data that goes with that which are probably obliquely referenced in the Terms of Service, like how they are free to use the photo for "testing" or some other such bullshit purpose, which is really TESTING how large of a database of people's faces they can acquire so they can sell to their REAL customers enhanced ability to recognize your face to push advertising on you...

    and that's a BEST CASE SCENARIO. It could be something far more nefarious and underhanded. After-all... it's Misrosoft. Ripping people off and making them miserable is what they're best at.

    Don't give away your personal information to Misrosoft (or anyone) for NOTHING, people!

  32. Not for the NSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Common, guy. The NSA already HAS that. This is for Chinese companies and others to advertise to you and/or rip you off in other ways.

    A simple test: is it from Microsoft?

    Then it's intended to rip you off. Use ANYTHING ELSE.

    1. Re:Not for the NSA by umghhh · · Score: 2

      Probably true. For NSA it would be more efficient to rip off DBs of driving license issuing authorities around the world.

  33. Doesn't work - Definitive proof by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I tried two identical couples and it doesn't work. These should give, at least, 105%.

    http://imgur.com/J7dy6Ng
    http://imgur.com/lxtZI7T

    As a rule, incorporate those two in your test set. If you don't pass that, keep your image recognition algorithm to yourself.

  34. Headline should read 'How to adapt demo code' by jfbilodeau · · Score: 1

    The headline should read that a developer downloaded an SDK, tweaked a demo in the SDK, and uploaded it to the web. Then wrote an TFA about out.

    --
    Goodbye Slashdot. You've changed.
  35. costs associated with each comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder about the electric costs associated with such a similarity comparison. You calculate the costs associated with running the comparison itself, plus the electric costs associated with the training data, and the costs associated with each queries associated piece of everything else involved. The costs must be astronomical. I wonder if anyone has ever done such a study.

  36. Two twins but not related... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would it be able to distinguish if someone uploaded two photos of twins but they weren't related... They are still technically twins in their own right but would Microsoft's service be able to detect that...?

  37. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Also a neat way to get pictures of faces for amm.... other things...

  38. TOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure people are reading the terms of use that gives Microsoft and their partners/advertisers the rights to use your image in any way they like.

  39. More interesting by StikyPad · · Score: 1

    It would be more interesting if it matched a database of photos to find doppelgangers... although there may be identity theft liabilities.

  40. Re:What is this has got to do with MS's core busin by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

    Yep, somebody has to be root at the firewall... I would love it if ISPs would configure a firewall at their side of the connection.... something along the lines of don't even send me anything nodes I don't ever want to see again. Would nip the DDOS problems out.