Microsoft how-old: What exactly "betrays" our age?

During the May Day holiday, Microsoft's how-old.net was a big hit. There was a new saying that "the only difference between Guo Degang and Jimmy Lin is Nicky Wu", and celebrities such as Kai-Fu Lee also posted on Weibo that "I finally fulfilled my dream and have a wife 50 years younger than me". It is reported that more than one million photos have been uploaded for testing.

So, what is the principle?

Previously, we also quoted an article that analyzed from the perspective of algorithm API. Now Qianjiang Evening News has brought some popular answers from doctors and scholars. You may want to take a look.

Dermatologist: The first thing that betrays your age is your skin. Facial skin is the most important basis for measuring age.

Qiao Gang, director of the Laser Beauty Center of the Dermatology Department of Hangzhou Third Hospital, did some research and believed that the most important basis for how-old.net to guess age should be the skin on the face.

"When performing age recognition, facial skin is the easiest data for computers to capture." Qiao Gang said that as we age and accumulate sun exposure, the elastic fibers in the skin will break. It is like there is a tight network that originally holds your face, but when the ropes in the network break little by little, your face collapses and becomes loose.

In this process, the corners of the mouth and the sides of the nose are the most obvious, which are the well-known nasolabial folds. The how-old.net website uses this to measure the depth of the nasolabial folds to measure a person's age.

How-old.net uses a natural algorithm to first define the age range of people in photos by detecting the reddening of the skin, broken capillaries, and increased tan spots caused by UV rays.

In addition to the facial skin, the eye skin and neck skin also betray a person's age.

Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts: Age depends on the brow bone. A small face, big eyes and accurate lighting will make you look younger.

As a professor born in the sculpture department, Professor Long Xiang of the China Academy of Art is well aware of the characteristics of people of different ages, which is a necessity for artistic expression.

Artists who create human subjects have sharp eyes. When they evaluate people, they often mention a physiological structure term called "brow bone".

Specifically, use the horizontal line of the eyebrow as the boundary to measure the proportion of the upper and lower parts of the brow bone. This is a very reliable basis for judging age - the larger the proportion of the part below the brow bone, the older the person is. This is not limited to the differences between Eastern and Western populations. According to the growth law of human bones, when a person passes puberty and the mandible develops, the part of the face below the brow bone will become longer and longer.

This is also the reason why those with round “baby faces” always look ageless.

In addition, consciously opening your eyes wider may help you fool the software to look a few years younger. The bigger the eyes, the younger you look. If you look at photos of children, their eyes usually stand out from the rest of their faces because their pupils are very large.

Of course, since everyone is competing to compare their ages in photos, lighting is also very important when taking photos.

Lighting is usually considered an important part of shaping the beauty of female artists. Xie Ze, the lighting director of Red Sorghum, said that lighting played a finishing touch on Zhou Xun's face. Zhou Xun's small face is photogenic and she is well maintained. Soft light and reflectors cover up the small flaws on her face and give her a "girlish" look: "Clean skin makes you look younger." In addition, Zhou Xun's acting skills are also an indispensable factor: "Her eyes are very dramatic, so a little light will make her look very spiritual."

Go ahead, upload a photo of yourself with bright eyes, a small face, and good lighting, and ask Microsoft to do the math.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.