Computer analysis of face beauty: a survey

The human face conveys to other human beings, and potentially to computer systems, information such as identity, intentions, emotional and health states, attractiveness, age, gender and ethnicity. In most cases analyzing this information involves the computer science as well as the human and medical sciences. The most studied multidisciplinary problems are analyzing emotions, estimating age and modeling aging effects. An emerging area is the analysis of human attractiveness. The purpose of this paper is to survey recent research on the computer analysis of human beauty. First we present results in human sciences and medicine pointing to a largely shared and data-driven perception of attractiveness, which is a rationale of computer beauty analysis. After discussing practical application areas, we survey current studies on the automatic analysis of facial attractiveness aimed at: i) relating attractiveness to particular facial features; ii) assessing attractiveness automatically; iii) improving the attractiveness of 2D or 3D face images. Finally we discuss open problems and possible lines of research

Perception and recognition of computer-enhanced facial attributes and abstracted prototypes

The influence of the human facial image was surveyed and the nature of its many interpretations were examined. The role of distinctiveness was considered particularly relevant as it accounted for many of the impressions of character and identity ascribed to individuals. The notion of structural differences with respect to some selective essence of normality is especially important as it allows a wide range of complex facial types to be considered and understood in an objective manner. A software tool was developed which permitted the manipulation of facial images. Quantitative distortions of digital images were examined using perceptual and recognition memory paradigms. Seven experiments investigated the role of distinctiveness in memory for faces using synthesised caricatures. The results showed that caricatures, both photographic and line-drawing, improved recognition speed and accuracy, indicating that both veridical and distinctiveness information are coded for familiar faces in long-term memory. The impact of feature metrics on perceptual estimates of facial age was examined using 'age-caricatured' images and were found to be in relative accordance with the 'intended' computed age. Further modifying the semantics permitted the differences between individual faces to be visualised in terms of facial structure and skin texture patterns. Transformations of identity between two, or more, faces established the necessary matrices which can offer an understanding of facial expression in a categorical manner and the inherent interactions. A procedural extension allowed generation of composite images in which all features are perfectly aligned. Prototypical facial types specified in this manner enabled high-level manipulations to be made of gender and attractiveness; two experiments corroborated previously speculative material and thus gave credence to the prototype model. In summary, psychological assessment of computer-manipulated facial images demonstrated the validity of the objective techniques and highlighted particular parameters which contribute to our perception and recognition of the individual and of underlying facial types

User feedback on prototypes and its impact on the success of future products

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 21).A survey was conducted to review the literature that currently exists on the topic of user feedback received from prototypes. Special attention was paid to whether and how this customer interaction impacts the success of final products. The findings of all reviewed literature were categorized as definitions, human and prototype factors that influence user response, or considerations in implementing user feedback. Although no consensus was reached across sources, compilation and analysis of these works was intended to contribute to the development of prototype-to-product processes.by Alexandra M. Beyer.S.B

Rapid detection of human facial attractiveness in groups

In a world full of great visual repetition, humans have evolved to simplify visual processing, taking redundant information and compressing it into a simpler form (Alvarez, 2011). This compressed form is an ensemble representation, an abstract singular entity that conveys the relevant information about its constituents.Haberman & Whitney (2009) demonstrated that even with stimuli as complex as human faces, and specifically their emotional expressions, such a representation can be generated, and the mean expression of a group can be accurately identified from brief presentations. Other research has shown that the attractiveness of faces can be rapidly assessed from very brief exposures (Olson & Marshuetz, 2005; Willis & Todorov, 2006), but this has not considered more than a single face in a presentation. Those that have, only considered estimates of frequency of attractiveness comparing between brief exposures and longer presentation times, not taking into account how accurate these estimates were.The aim of this thesis was to explore the accuracy with which participants could judge the attractiveness of a group of faces, either as a two-alternative-forced-choice task judging which of two groups contained more attractive faces, whether a single group contained more attractive or more unattractive faces, and estimating the number of attractive faces in a group. The results showed that the judgements of attractiveness were accurate from brief exposures, but this judgement was modulated partially by the task at hand. This modulation was further explored by comparing various ratings of attractiveness of the groups, and suggested that the ensemble representation might be formed by some combination of statistical and visual averaging. Finally, the use of eye-tracking technology showed no bias in visual attention towards more attractive faces, and that fixation duration patterns were, to some extent, also modulated by the task

Computer graphic control over human face and head appearance: to, genetic optimisation of perceptual characteristics

The aims of this thesis are two-fold. The first is to develop computer graphics that allow quantitative manipulation of complex visual stimuli. The second is to show that such techniques have utility in the domain of perceptual psychology. There are three main sections to this thesis. The first section creates methods for performing transformations of facial appearance along particular perceptual dimensions. This work begins with 2-D image manipulations and then extends the general principles to 3-D. Effectiveness of the techniques is illustrated with plates showing transformation in age, gender and identity. The second section uses Genetic Algorithms to control the appearance of 3-D computer graphics objects and investigates methods of evolving objects that embody various consumer concepts. Computer graphic models of shampoo bottles are successfully evolved to satisfy a selection of aesthetic and perceptual characteristics. The final section returns to facial stimuli and extends the Genetic Algorithm approach to investigate aesthetic preference for 3-D facial surfaces. The study shows that individual human subjects can evolve facial surfaces based upon their own attractiveness preferences. The faces evolved are non-average and there is consistency between subjects about preferred characteristics. The three parts of this thesis have different theoretical backgrounds and literature relevant to each topic is therefore reviewed at the start of each section