Mutating Faces.

By Anita in Everything Else on Oct 1, 2007 at 10:48 pm

Philipp Lenssen, one of the writers at Google Blogoscoped, has set up a really neat experiment:

I’ve set up a small idea at MutatingPictures.com. There’s a pool of 1,000 random, symmetric pictures, displayed one at a time. For every picture you answer the question, “How much does this look like a face?” (things other than faces may come in the future). Then, the higher your rating from 0-10, the more offspring the picture produces (a rating of 6 for instance will replace and “kill” 6 other random pics among the population). Each of the offspring pictures is slightly mutated by shifting around some of the polygons that make up the black-and-white pictures.

The site hasn’t even been up for a day, and it is obvious that the pictures are really beginning to look like faces (I selected the one above at random), particularly when compared with some of the initial random images.

Link via Google Blogoscoped.


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  1. Priscilla
    Oct 1st, 2007 at 10:58 pm

    looks like Jesus!

  2. Rafael Madeira
    Oct 1st, 2007 at 11:46 pm

    Moustached Samurai Generator.

  3. Adam Stanhope
    Oct 1st, 2007 at 11:48 pm

    hehe – these two comments are great. I was just going to say that it was either Jesus (comment #1) or Toshiro Mifune in Hell in the Pacific (comment #2).

  4. Anita
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 12:35 am

    Has everyone met or seen Jesus except for me? I need to get out more.

  5. Chris
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 12:49 am

    I found a Gene Simmons AND a Thor. I hope they procreate!

  6. K
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 1:32 am

    Funny thing is, a lot of the ones with the flares on the bottom or exaggerated fans at the top all look like a varirty of Samurai faces to me, too.

  7. Johnald_Chaffinch
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 2:23 am

    it looks similar to some christian’s depiction of a fictional character called jesus christ

  8. DemonioFlatline
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 4:34 am

    Anything that resembles a human with beard is automatically identified as the “christian’s depiction of a fictional character called jesus christ”

    By the way, I tried this this and is the most boring thing I’ve seen for a while. After many and many faces rated I went to see the pregress… it would take like 1 million years to get to something that REALLY looks like the “christian’s depiction of a fictional character called jesus christ”

  9. Muenster
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 7:03 am

    Looks like a logo for a Christian Metal band* or a window decal for a mexican’s pick-up truck.

    * Christian Metal is a real life oxymoron.

  10. Tony
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 8:13 am

    @Muenster

    How is Christian Metal an oxymoron? It all depends on your definition of metal, but any definition that results in the oxymoron is one based on stereotypes, and is faulty logic.

  11. Muenster
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 8:45 am

    Dear Tony,

    be serious. as much as I would like to debate you about “Heavy Metal” music on a comment page for “Mutating Faces” it will take away from the subject that everyone else is commenting on and I’m not selfish. Anyway yuor wrong and you need to get your act together. Christian Metal is not a form of Heavy Metal it is a substitute. and a poor one at that.

  12. Monster
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 1:13 pm

    “Christian Metal is not a form of Heavy Metal it is a substitute. and a poor one at that.”

    In your opinion. You’re mostly right, but there are a few Christian metal bands that are worthy.

    And this looks like Jesus not just because of the beard, but also because of the hair and because it appears He is wearing a crown of thorns (and a necklace of thorns, but hey, it’s close enough for a mostly random image).

  13. Jimmy
    Oct 2nd, 2007 at 2:47 pm

    I totaly don’t see Jesus

    who cares about what christian metal sounds like? its just music like any other…you either dont like it or you do!

  14. john
    Oct 3rd, 2007 at 7:40 am

    LOL at Christian Metal. Anger and rage for Christ! Because he loves everyone!

    *except the people he sends to hell forever and ever.

  15. ted
    Oct 4th, 2007 at 5:07 am

    Jesus and heavy Metal aside, the symmetry of the image helps to create the image of the face. You just need two eyes and one mouth for a picture to appear in your mind.

    As for Jesus and the samurais, we are used to seeing the face of Jesus downcast, with the crown of thorns. Nobody thinks “baby Jesus” or “Jesus healing the sick”, looking at this picture. This kinda reminds me of Jesus as a Transformer.

  16. Ty
    Oct 5th, 2007 at 12:29 am

    You guys don’t realize that dude looks more like Zeus.

  17. Muenster
    Oct 5th, 2007 at 7:38 am

    You guys don’t realize that dude looks more like Bob Seger


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