A very important post about…. how I wasted an hour today
So I stumbled across MyHeritage.com today — which claims to have a face recognition program that lets you upload a photo and tells you which celebrities you look like. Of course, I couldn’t resist. After uploading the picture on the front of the web site, here’s the list of celebs I was told I resemble: ...
So I stumbled across MyHeritage.com today -- which claims to have a face recognition program that lets you upload a photo and tells you which celebrities you look like. Of course, I couldn't resist. After uploading the picture on the front of the web site, here's the list of celebs I was told I resemble: Matt LeBlanc Dustin Hoffman Antonio Banderas Usama bin Laden George Clooney Pierce Brosnan Jason Biggs Roberto Rossellini Hugh Grant Tom Stoppard If you've managed to contain yourself to this point, well, you have better self restraint than I. Needless to say, their technology appears to be heavily dependent upon the angle of the face in the photo, hair length, facial hair, the presence of eyeglasses, etc. In other words, it's pretty much rubbish. When I uploaded a Salma Hayek photo, the program declared her to be only a 74% match with... Salma Hayek. So this was a waste of time.....
until
I realized that I could upload pictures of other bloggers and see who they resembled. The resulting lists of names are pretty friggin' funny. Glenn Reynolds: Ward Cunningham Yossi Beilin Alan Alda John Major Franz Kafka Pierre Curie Linus Torvalds (this was the one photo where I really thought the program worked) Marshall McLuhan Sidney Lumet Henry KissingerVirginia Postrel: Kajol Diane Keaton Eva Peron Alicia Keys Agam Rudberg Renee Zellweger Meryl Streep Preity Zinta Andie MacDowell Andrew Sullivan -- no matches. I tried two different photos, and Andrew stumped the computer. Matthew Yglesias: Leonardo DiCaprio River Phoenix Danny Elfman Orlando Bloom Vaclav Havel Elton JohnTyler CowenBoris Trajkovski Rudolph Nureyev Benjamin Netanyahu Cary Grant Alec Baldwin Benicio Del Toro Zoran Djindjic Kevin Bacon Arvo Part Roy OrbisonAna Marie Cox: Annette Bening Kirsten Dunst Angelina Jolie Gwyneth Paltrow Megan McArdle: Katie Holmes Neve Campbell Liv Tyler Demi Moore Grace Kelly Kate Winslet Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Lauren Bacall Oh, and as a final check, I uploaded this photo of Henry Farrell and myself: For Henry: George Clooney Art Garfunkel Michael Jackson Heitor Villa-Lobos George Lazenby Chet BakerFor myself: Henry David Thoreau Federico Garcia Lorca Shahrukh Kahn Chet Baker Michael Douglas Keanu ReevesWhoa.
So I stumbled across MyHeritage.com today — which claims to have a face recognition program that lets you upload a photo and tells you which celebrities you look like. Of course, I couldn’t resist. After uploading the picture on the front of the web site, here’s the list of celebs I was told I resemble:
Matt LeBlanc Dustin Hoffman Antonio Banderas Usama bin Laden George Clooney Pierce Brosnan Jason Biggs Roberto Rossellini Hugh Grant Tom Stoppard
If you’ve managed to contain yourself to this point, well, you have better self restraint than I. Needless to say, their technology appears to be heavily dependent upon the angle of the face in the photo, hair length, facial hair, the presence of eyeglasses, etc. In other words, it’s pretty much rubbish. When I uploaded a Salma Hayek photo, the program declared her to be only a 74% match with… Salma Hayek. So this was a waste of time…..
until
I realized that I could upload pictures of other bloggers and see who they resembled. The resulting lists of names are pretty friggin’ funny. Glenn Reynolds:
Ward Cunningham Yossi Beilin Alan Alda John Major Franz Kafka Pierre Curie Linus Torvalds (this was the one photo where I really thought the program worked) Marshall McLuhan Sidney Lumet Henry Kissinger
Kajol Diane Keaton Eva Peron Alicia Keys Agam Rudberg Renee Zellweger Meryl Streep Preity Zinta Andie MacDowell
Andrew Sullivan — no matches. I tried two different photos, and Andrew stumped the computer. Matthew Yglesias:
Leonardo DiCaprio River Phoenix Danny Elfman Orlando Bloom Vaclav Havel Elton John
Boris Trajkovski Rudolph Nureyev Benjamin Netanyahu Cary Grant Alec Baldwin Benicio Del Toro Zoran Djindjic Kevin Bacon Arvo Part Roy Orbison
Annette Bening Kirsten Dunst Angelina Jolie Gwyneth Paltrow
Katie Holmes Neve Campbell Liv Tyler Demi Moore Grace Kelly Kate Winslet Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Lauren Bacall
Oh, and as a final check, I uploaded this photo of Henry Farrell and myself:
George Clooney Art Garfunkel Michael Jackson Heitor Villa-Lobos George Lazenby Chet Baker
For myself: Henry
David Thoreau Federico Garcia Lorca Shahrukh Kahn Chet Baker Michael Douglas Keanu Reeves
Whoa.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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