Lying about your age? A computer can tell

Bryn Nelson Columnist

How well can you hide your age? Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a software program that estimates age based solely on someone’s facial appearance, suggesting that in the near future you won’t be able to fool either Mother Nature or that video camera verifying your ID at the local bar.

Beyond more accurate age estimates, the technology suggests a way for ads to target passersby with age-appropriate pitches, for face-based security systems to improve their accuracy, and for robots to become more adept at responding to human needs.

“Definitely for human-robot interactions, the robot would like to know as much about humans as possible,” said Thomas Huang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois who led the research.

Correctly guessing someone’s age is a huge challenge even for humans, a problem that can be complicated by cosmetic interventions, genetics, gender, ethnicity, drug or alcohol consumption, and even relative sun exposure. Computer algorithms based on appearance can only guess a person’s perceived age, but even rough estimates could be a boon for electronically managing customer relations or compiling demographic data.

Customized advertising
Imagine, for instance, a strategic camera and age-recognition model calculating the percentage of McDonald’s Big Macs bought by males of a certain age group. Likewise, an interactive ad could be tailored to tempt older pedestrians with a McCafe hazelnut cappuccino instead of, say, a Happy Meal.

“I think we are moving closer and closer to ‘Minority Report,’ where we have these systems that look at you and can generate some demographic information automatically,” said Karl Ricanek Jr., director of the Face Aging Group at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

In the science fiction movie, shoppers are greeted by advertisements that know plenty about their personal tastes. Israel-based YCD Multimedia has already taken several steps toward turning fiction into fact with customized in-store ads based in part on each viewer’s perceived age.

Japanese company Fujitaka has taken a different tack by equipping some vending machines with video cameras and age-recognition software to prevent underage teens from buying cigarettes, though several news accounts suggest the system can be tricked by a picture of an older person taken from a magazine.

Huang said his software isn’t yet ready to tackle such a sensitive age-verification issue, and he conceded that even marketing applications may need more sophisticated programs. Identifying the right target audience among passing shoppers, after all, likely requires advertising software that can guess ages based on side profiles as well as frontal views.

Beyond busting underage drinkers or smokers and startling shoppers with eerily precise cosmetic or clothing ads, Ricanek said age prediction technology could be combined with facial recognition systems to improve border security.

Ricanek, whose work is independent of the University of Illinois research, proposed the following scenario: Suppose a terrorist had his passport photo taken when he was 30. Based on that photo, would surveillance cameras be able to recognize him when he crosses the border 8 years later? A method that takes aging into account just might.

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