Google Art & Culture app matches selfies to famous paintings
What's the story
Google has updated its Arts & Culture app to add a facial recognition feature that matches your face to a museum portrait. In this, users can upload a selfie on the platform and the app identifies a museum portrait from around the US (unless you have a VPN to bypass it) that best resembles their face. Here is more on it.
Details
The app displays your art doppelgänger along with similarity percentage
Users have reported that the app is quite accurate in finding their art doppelgänger. The latest update searches through the app's vast repository of art collection and presents its final pick alongside your selfie with the percentage to which your face matches the artwork. Users also have the option of sharing the results on social media.
Twitter Post
Here is what the app picked for actor Kumail Nanjiani
Hey this one ain’t so bad. pic.twitter.com/er0FxZNVO8
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) January 13, 2018
Background
Google uses image recognition technology in the app
The app, which is currently geo-restricted to the US, displays that Google's deep learning systems are getting pretty neat at matching small individual details. Post the update, Google Art & Culture became the top free app in the App Store in the US. It catalogs historical works from over 1,200 international museums and galleries in 70 countries.
Quote
Google on facial detection and pattern recognition
Google said, "The same pattern recognition technology that powers facial detection can help a computer to understand characteristics of the face. For example, there might be certain patterns that suggest a face is wearing a beard or glasses, or that it has attributes like those."