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Digital pareidolia: do computers see faces the same way we do?

Digital pareidolia: do computers see faces the same way we do?

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Greg Borenstein has run pareidolia-inducing photos through FaceTracker software to see if computers perceive faces in everyday objects the same way we do.

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ps vita happy face
ps vita happy face

Pareidolia is the phenomenon of finding significance in random stimuli, most famously manifesting itself with recognizable faces appearing in everyday objects. You might be familiar with the Flickr group "Hello Little Fella!" which collects hundreds of photos displaying the occurrence. Of course, many electronic devices are designed to recognize faces too, so what happens when you put pareidolia-inducing objects in front of their software? Greg Borenstein over at Urban Honking tested this out by using FaceTracker software with photos taken from the aforementioned Flickr group, and the results are pretty intriguing. Sometimes the software interprets faces the exact same way we do, sometimes it might agree with us on the eyes but find a different nose, and other times still it brings entirely new faces to our attention. Follow the source link below to see more of Borenstein's findings.

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