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Some Eye-Popping Research From Siggraph
Posted by
kdawson
on Sat Aug 16, 2008 05:18 PM
from the let's-face-it dept.
from the let's-face-it dept.
jamie found links to a discriminating selection of Siggraph papers at waxy.org. Among the more captivating: automatically improving the attractiveness of faces in portraits; automatic substitution of similar faces into photographs (with potential applications such as a privacy-enhanced Google Street View); and using still photographs to enhance video of a static scene.
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Algorithms Can Make You Pretty 24 comments
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.
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FX Show Nip/Tuck said it best (Score:4, Insightful)
"Beauty is Symmetry, and you have none"
One of the main characters in the plastic surgery show Nip/Tuck made that comment. It seems as if TFA applies said comment.
I sent them a pic of my face to be touched up (Score:5, Funny)
All I got back was an email that read "ROTFLMAO!"
Re:I sent them a pic of my face to be touched up (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
So in summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So in summary (Score:5, Insightful)
that was exactly what I was going to write :) But the first guy sort of defeats that rule, he's actually a little broader in the face than the source image.
A simpler rule would be 'add symmetry', mirror the left half of the face (or the right half, flip a coin).
Adding a smile also goes a long way towards making people prettier, in fact a smile really is the best make-up.
Parent
Re:So in summary (Score:5, Interesting)
I can see this tool becoming very popular with the Myspace crowd once they realize the limitations of the current "hold camera above head level" method [officialda...source.com].
Parent
Re:So in summary (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
dating sites will love this (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder how soon they will be offering the "attractiveness improvement" service to the photos of their subscribers. I don't think they have enough CPU power to improve mine, though.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Why the hell would I need their services at all? I always just send a picture of Fabio like normal people do.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
For the reverse process (to make other people look more attractive), I've developed my own tech. I call it Beneficial Ephemeral Eye Reticulation googles. Basically, a pair of B.E.E.R. Googles make even the attendees of a Linux kernel hacking conference look aesthetically acceptable. If only I could make the effect a lasting one...
Strange 3D photo pairs (Score:3, Interesting)
I rotated the pairs of adjusted faces so they were left to right (and the faces were on their sides), and defocused my eyes as if I was looking at a 3D stereo pair of pictures to see what would happen. The slight differences made the portraits appear to me as if they had been photographed in 3D. The places that had been changed were subtly evident as a misalignment -- in the eyes of some, for example. I realize this is a fudged 3D effect, but might there be some use for it?
---
I write pointed political and business short stories at http://klurgsheld.wordpress.com/ [wordpress.com]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, any two similar pictures can get that effect if you focus on them as though they are one. I occasionally use it to cheat on "Find the 10 differences" puzzles, but I don't really see much more use for it. :)
Ghost of Clarke seen skulking nearby. (Score:4, Insightful)
The first two are meh-worthy, but the last one approaches magic-grade technology. Wow!
Re:Ghost of Clarke seen skulking nearby. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Wow. No, really, wow! (Score:5, Interesting)
real footage? (Score:4, Insightful)
when cheap, easy, video editing allows this then supposedly real footage: news, family videos, wedding snaps will lose all veracity.
after every girl wants to look good for her wedding...
and before somebody says "it will never happen" this is only a logical extension of red-eye removal.
Re:real footage? (Score:5, Insightful)
I get the feeling from you that you trust it now. I find this confusing myself. Considering that an apparently large portion of Slashdotters very much consider themselves rationalist who do not believe things without proper evidence, it seems weird to me that many simply believe what they see in the news. These past week (maybe 2) there were at least two cases circulating around the internet where it had been observed that CNN has used footage from one event, trying to pass it off as that of another event. And that's pretty low tech.
News reports should be only be as trusted as logic can be applied to the report.
Take for instance the recent story of a Russian sipper shooting at a reporter. A few questions came to my mind:
News stories should be treated as untested pieces of evidence -- in most cases at least. The advancement of technology will only make it more difficult to tell truth from fiction.
Parent
Re:real footage? (Score:4, Informative)
What kind of sniper takes a shot and misses?
The kind that isn't a formal and TV depicted sniper. The kind that isn't a sniper at all.
Rather just some goon soldier or citizen with any old rifle from a fair distance away. Just becouse the media calls it a sniper, doesn't make it so.
Parent
Re:real footage? (Score:4, Insightful)
> What kind of sniper takes such a shot and misses?
No one is perfect. Long distance and wind variations can cause a miss.
> What kind of sniper misses, and doesn't take a second shot?
The smart sniper. There was no way a second shot would have hit. Everyone was moving around too much.
> How does one tell the affiliation of a sniper?
If they shoot at you, you can be sure it's the enemy. The sniper would have easily figured out which side the potential target was on.
> Do they sign their bullets or something?
Signing the bullet would have screwed up the ballistics. Snipers are extremely anal retentive when it comes to their rounds. They usually use hand loads and they buff the round to remove any imperfections.
FYI, a close friend was a sniper for SpecOps.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You trust it now? Are you new here?
Lists of Siggraph (and other) papers (Score:5, Informative)
I'd call this karmawhoring, but seeing as the editors didn't even bother linking to claimed list at 'waxy.org'... lists of Siggraph papers have been kept by Tim Rowley and Ke-Sen Huang for years. You can find this year's list at:
http://kesen.huang.googlepages.com/sig2008.html [googlepages.com]
And an overview of all years at:
http://kesen.huang.googlepages.com/ [googlepages.com]
This also includes lists of papers presented at other events such as Eurographics.
For even more fun, visit the papers' authors sites; they often also publish papers at seemingly unrelated events that contain some interesting computer graphics gems.
One Possible Use (Score:3, Funny)
Easy. (Score:5, Informative)
Making faces more attractive is easy. All you have to do to get a reasonable increase is to make them more symmetrical.
If you want yet another increase, there is a set of ratios for distances between features that uncannily applies to pretty much everyone who is widely considered attractive. Shift everything closer to those ratios, and you'll get a big improvement.
Want more? Fix skin blemishes.
Between the three of those, you can make incredible strides. I would highly encourage any interested to watch "The Human Face".
Digital beer goggles. (Score:3, Funny)
Now she can look as good the morning after as she did the night before!
Complicated Software (Score:5, Funny)
See the following example for how I was able to increase the attractiveness of an already attractive Hooters girl using only Microsoft Paint. (exported via Fireworks for filesize optimization)
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/9474/hooters4si8.jpg [imageshack.us]