Computer program evaluates physical beauty of women

By: Elliott Townsend

Posted: 4/11/08

The old saying goes, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

Now, the beholder is a computer.

For his master's thesis in computer science, Amit Kagian created a program that can "determine" a woman's facial attractiveness.

Under the guidance of professor Eytan Ruppin and professor Gideon Dror of Tel Aviv University, Kagian's research and exploration into programming and psychology has unearthed both the age-old controversy of beauty, as well as technological advancement.

In a series of stages, Kagian and his team polled a group of 30 participants. These participants were asked to judge roughly 100 pictures of Caucasian women on a scale of one to seven, based on the aesthetic beauty of the women in the pictures. In rating the pictures, the participants were instructed not to give reasons as to why they rated each woman the way they did.

After this first stage, Kagian processed the number ratings of each picture. After mathematically mapping each number, Kagian's research team came to a final set of 98 categories for characterizing a face, ranging from the shape of a woman's eyes to the width of her nose.

Kagian's team input the data into a computer along with new pictures of women who weren't rated in the first stage. The computer was then asked to rate each woman. The results surprised Kagian, as they appeared very similar to the results produced by humans.

Despite the similarities, the results are not universal, said Kagian in his final thesis paper.

Robin Riley, assistant professor in women's studies at Syracuse University, agrees with Kagain's assessment.

"These things are completely subjective," she said. "Each society has different cultural and gender preferences."

What Kagian's program arrived at was an "average beauty" based on the compilation of results from the human ratings. Regardless, Riley believes there are too many variables to take into account.

Like Riley, some feel that because beauty is based on an individual bias, it seems unlikely that a computer could process the same emotions.

Tim Korecky, a sophomore computer science major, doesn't think the computer can be as accurate as a pair of human eyes.

"Everyone has their own tastes," he said.

Korecky said that because computer code is based on a series of zeros and ones, it would be difficult to elaborate on such basic decision-making skills most computers have.

He also mentioned that programming such as this is fairly advanced and requires many lines of code. Despite the complexity, Korecky said he still believes it's unrealistic to think a computer can make such complex judgments, given that humans have far more preferences.

From a social perspective, Kagian's work has stirred up controversy. But on the technological front, his research may lead to promising advances in both plastic and reconstructive surgery, as well as Artificial Intelligence in computers.

"Depending on how sophisticated it is, (Kagian's program) could be used in facial recognition and security," Korecky said. "This could be a step in the right direction."

Kelly Mehler, a sophomore English and textual studies major, said Kagian's work only perpetuates the stereotypes that already exist in society. In a world where women are constantly pressured to conform to the stereotypical "celebrity body," Mehler said she believes this further alienates those who don't resemble society's "perfect" woman.

Kagian's research and developments have recently been published in the scientific journal Vision Research. In future research, Kagian plans to shift his focus to men. He said that because the social definitions of male attractiveness aren't as universal as those of females, the process and programming will probably be more complex.

Kagian's software may revolutionize certain scientific fields, but the social controversy of beauty still remains.

"There are already standards of beauty in place," Riley of SU's women's studies program said. "I don't think people are na've enough to base their opinions on it."

entownse@syr.edu