Genetic Algorithm Helps Identify Criminals 84
Ponca City, We love you writes to tell us that a new software approach to police sketch artists is finding surprising success in a trial run of 15 police departments in the UK and a few other sites. The software borrows principles from evolution with an interactive genetic algorithm that progressively changes as witnesses try to remember specific details. Current field trials are reporting an increase in successful identification by as much as double conventional methods. A short video with a few working shots of the new "EFIT-V" system is also available on YouTube. "[Researcher Christopher Solomon]'s software generates its own faces that progressively evolve to match the witness' memories. The witness starts with a general description such as 'I remember a young white male with dark hair.' Nine different computer-generated faces that roughly fit the description are generated, and the witness identifies the best and worst matches. The software uses the best fit as a template to automatically generate nine new faces with slightly tweaked features, based on what it learned from the rejected faces. 'Over a number of generations, the computer can learn what face you're looking for,' says Solomon. The mathematics underlying the software is borrowed from Solomon's experience using optics to image turbulence in the atmosphere in the 1990s."
Does it swim? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes: Is it a frog?
No: Please enter the type of animal.
This article reminds me of the old Animal game, where it does a binary search for whatever type of animal you're thinking. It's been expanded to handle all types of nouns, with a 15-questions interface that is uncanny.
For another computer-generated facial reconstruction test, take a look at the mona lisa. [rogeralsing.com]
Re:GA vs. Hillclimbing (Score:3, Interesting)
I also have to wonder how they are accounting for selection bias, where the witness selects the face that appears most like their internal image of the "bad guy" rather than the one closest to the actual suspect. I recall reading some studies a while back where they found that most witnesses are not that reliable when it comes to things like facial details.
Also, are they accounting for racial variances, such as the word white being used for anyone of light skin type?
It's about time for GP (Score:3, Interesting)
You take a fistful of bad answers to a problem, throw 'em in a breeding pit, and let 'em go at it.
you essentially breathe life into binary data, becoming a God, and allowing 'your people' to evolve into a solution to your problem.
I suppose you could call yourself an 'Intelligent Designer', but that lacks panache.
Re:It's about time for GP (Score:3, Interesting)
To answer your question, GA is not more popular because for most real-world problems it's difficult to come up with a good solution representation (one that lends itself well to "breeding"). Though they have been used successfully for a long time in several different niches.