Photoshop or not? New software can tell… | Practical Photoshop

The New York TImes is reporting on research into new ‘image manipulation measurement’ software that’s taking place at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.

The proposed tool, from Dr Hany Farid and Eric Kee, a student in computer science, is a new piece of software that rates how much manipulation has been carried out on a fashion or beauty image on a scale of 1 to 5. The algorithm measures how much of a person’s face and body have been enhanced, and gives the image a score from 1 (minor enhancements) to 5 (serious work). Hundreds of people were asked to compare sets of before and after images, and the results were used to fine-tune the software. You can see some before and after photos used to illustrate their research here.

“Models, for example, might well say, ‘I don’t want to be a 5. I want to be a 1,’” Dr Farid told the NYT’s website, and he hopes that the new software can be used in the development of self-regulation for the industry.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Web links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.