How Normal Are You?
October 1, 2020 6:58 AM Subscribe
How Normal Am I? is an art project/tech demo website by Tijmen Schep that that uses your camera and face-recognition to gauge how "normal" you are.
At least that is the link-baity hook. What it is really doing is giving a short but effective demonstration of what is possible in the field of recognizing and categorizing people.
At least that is the link-baity hook. What it is really doing is giving a short but effective demonstration of what is possible in the field of recognizing and categorizing people.
Rather fascinating. Useful (?) to know that my profile apparently looks 10 years younger than my frontal.
posted by Aethelwulf at 7:29 AM on October 1, 2020
posted by Aethelwulf at 7:29 AM on October 1, 2020
Note: this told me I was fat, ugly and sad, then never apologized.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:32 AM on October 1, 2020 [11 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 7:32 AM on October 1, 2020 [11 favorites]
On my phone, it turned on my rear-facing camera and didn't provide a way to swap to the selfie-cam.
posted by hanov3r at 8:03 AM on October 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by hanov3r at 8:03 AM on October 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
That was pretty interesting, though I didn't love the auto-playing audio. With my 'rona beard and unkempt hair it thought I looked about 10 years older than I am and gave me a pretty low attractiveness score -- both of which I'd agree with. I thought BMI was the easiest to manipulate -- you just have to raise your eyebrows and tilt your head forward to get a lower score. I was most unclear about the "fingerprint" section -- I would have liked to have known what the grid represented and it varied wildly depending on how I turned my head, etc.
posted by treepour at 8:29 AM on October 1, 2020
posted by treepour at 8:29 AM on October 1, 2020
Always nice to start the day being told I appear to be a different gender than I am, ten years older than I am, and dangerously underweight
posted by potrzebie at 8:40 AM on October 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by potrzebie at 8:40 AM on October 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Yup, unusable on mobile.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:55 AM on October 1, 2020
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:55 AM on October 1, 2020
There was a tiny grey camera button in the top left corner for me on mobile that reversed things. But honestly unless you are a very attractive twenty-hindering or you want to have a computer say mean things about you, I would maybe not bother.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:15 AM on October 1, 2020
posted by jacquilynne at 9:15 AM on October 1, 2020
I have never been so flattered by a glimpse of our dystopian future
posted by OverlappingElvis at 9:28 AM on October 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by OverlappingElvis at 9:28 AM on October 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
I have never been so flattered by a glimpse of our dystopian future
I was about to thank everyone for crowd-testing the Future-Crime AI being developed.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:33 AM on October 1, 2020
I was about to thank everyone for crowd-testing the Future-Crime AI being developed.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:33 AM on October 1, 2020
facial recognition data gathering app
posted by infini at 10:04 AM on October 1, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by infini at 10:04 AM on October 1, 2020 [6 favorites]
I took off my glasses and my beauty score went up 6%.
posted by middlethird at 10:10 AM on October 1, 2020
posted by middlethird at 10:10 AM on October 1, 2020
For reference, Ingrid Bergman is about a 7 and Ryan Reynolds is not quite an 8.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:15 AM on October 1, 2020
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:15 AM on October 1, 2020
I am 64% normal. I don't understand what that means...
posted by kitcat at 10:28 AM on October 1, 2020
posted by kitcat at 10:28 AM on October 1, 2020
Nice - If this app is telling me that I am 2/3 as attractive as Ryan Reynolds than I support it.
posted by windbox at 10:29 AM on October 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by windbox at 10:29 AM on October 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
OK, got it to work. I was 45% normal. The computer thinks I'm 14 years younger than I actually am, but also quite a bit heavier. I rated below average in beauty, and was apparently sad - which most people are. I have a life expectancy of 81 years.
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:37 AM on October 1, 2020
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:37 AM on October 1, 2020
I took off my glasses and my Hotness Score went from 7.5 to 9.7 so I'm going to say this is a great website!
posted by theodolite at 10:37 AM on October 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by theodolite at 10:37 AM on October 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
I took off my glasses and my Hotness Score went from 7.5 to 9.7 so I'm going to say this is a great website!
Was this website created by a Hollywood screenwriter?
posted by jacquilynne at 10:43 AM on October 1, 2020 [16 favorites]
Was this website created by a Hollywood screenwriter?
posted by jacquilynne at 10:43 AM on October 1, 2020 [16 favorites]
Just reading about this made me push my laptop camera-hider closed.
posted by the_blizz at 10:50 AM on October 1, 2020 [11 favorites]
posted by the_blizz at 10:50 AM on October 1, 2020 [11 favorites]
I want to know how Cliff I am instead.
posted by srboisvert at 11:23 AM on October 1, 2020
posted by srboisvert at 11:23 AM on October 1, 2020
I'm an old woman so it couldn't see me at all.
posted by JanetLand at 11:36 AM on October 1, 2020 [19 favorites]
posted by JanetLand at 11:36 AM on October 1, 2020 [19 favorites]
I'm 40 and it thought I was 16 (I do look young, but not THAT young). BMI seemed pretty close. Not a great judge of hotness so not sure how accurate my score was (7.9 so I'll take it).
Pretty creepy though. Sometimes I feel lucky to be the age I am and have missed out on so many of these tech things that are meant to make life better, but end up making it immeasurably worse. (For example I am so thankful I did not have Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. when I was a teen).
Can't even imagine how awful this type of thing will make the future.
posted by elvissa at 12:01 PM on October 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Pretty creepy though. Sometimes I feel lucky to be the age I am and have missed out on so many of these tech things that are meant to make life better, but end up making it immeasurably worse. (For example I am so thankful I did not have Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. when I was a teen).
Can't even imagine how awful this type of thing will make the future.
posted by elvissa at 12:01 PM on October 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
This is creepy af and also kind of great, it told me I'm thin, beautiful, and young (nope, not especially, and nope) and then it told me I would live for 81 more years, after I had already told it I'm in my thirties.
Thanks, I guess?
posted by beandip at 1:06 PM on October 1, 2020
Thanks, I guess?
posted by beandip at 1:06 PM on October 1, 2020
I'm 53% normal, which sounds about right. It also thinks I'm thinner than I really am. Anyway, that was fascinating -- thanks for posting!
posted by holborne at 1:31 PM on October 1, 2020
posted by holborne at 1:31 PM on October 1, 2020
In a way the inaccuracy is just as bad as if this really worked, and I suspect that's part of the message. (Note the bit where the presenter said he wanted to demo with African faces but couldn't get a consistent read). Algorithms give the people who commission and employ them a sense of accuracy, and they then make decisions with real world consequences, even though the accuracy is very much lacking -- but they feel justified.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:32 PM on October 1, 2020
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:32 PM on October 1, 2020
I did it again with my laptop and better lighting. My beauty was 7.9, I was 29 years old and had a BMI of 20.4. Still sad, still male. The difference? Lighting. And I smiled more, but not enough to be neutral. I was 63% normal.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:29 PM on October 1, 2020
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:29 PM on October 1, 2020
I'm an old cis guy, and it tells me I'm about half normal and "Pretty strange in a sexy way." I suppose I should save that assessment for Tinder if I ever get not married anymore. Or was that guy in the glasses just coming on to me? Oh, and I'm going to die in twelve years.
posted by kozad at 3:12 PM on October 1, 2020
posted by kozad at 3:12 PM on October 1, 2020
I got 75% normal, which is described as "violently normal."
If my normalcy hurt you, I sincerely apologize for the harm I caused.
posted by oddman at 5:07 PM on October 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
If my normalcy hurt you, I sincerely apologize for the harm I caused.
posted by oddman at 5:07 PM on October 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
I started it once with the browser on an external monitor which meant that I was looking up slightly. My age and gender came across as 41 year-old woman. I moved the browser down to my laptop where I was looking straight at the camera and determined that I'm a 52 year old man and that I'm "Violently average." oddman, I think we should fight.
(I'm a 50 yo woman who is skeptical about the accuracy of their AI.)
posted by bendy at 7:02 PM on October 1, 2020
(I'm a 50 yo woman who is skeptical about the accuracy of their AI.)
posted by bendy at 7:02 PM on October 1, 2020
You can definitely manipulate it a lot. I was surprised that it said I was extremely normal but then I suppose that just means I was close to the average of users who submitted data for all the parameters they evaluate. That doesn’t necessarily mean I look like the average of those people, let alone all people.
posted by atoxyl at 8:53 PM on October 1, 2020
posted by atoxyl at 8:53 PM on October 1, 2020
You can definitely manipulate it a lot.
I got my age all the way down from 35 (a little higher than my actual age) to 19. Personally I think I look a bit younger than 35, but I don’t think I look 19.
posted by atoxyl at 8:57 PM on October 1, 2020
I got my age all the way down from 35 (a little higher than my actual age) to 19. Personally I think I look a bit younger than 35, but I don’t think I look 19.
posted by atoxyl at 8:57 PM on October 1, 2020
I’d participate if there were an add-on called, “What’s Wrong With You?”
posted by The Potate at 9:32 PM on October 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by The Potate at 9:32 PM on October 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
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