Beauty Recognition Software

More than 2,000 years ago the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras observed the connection between math, geometry and beauty. He reasoned that features of physical objects corresponding to the "golden ratio" were considered most attractive.

Though the saying goes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", this time the beholder is a computer. Scientists at Tel Aviv University have developed computer software that can successfully "interpret attractiveness in women." Recognizing "beauty" in men might be the next step, but it is more difficult. Psychological research has shown that there is less agreement as to what defines "male beauty" among human subjects.

The software developer Amit Kagian said, "Until now, computers have been taught how to identify basic facial characteristics, such as the difference between a woman and a man, and even to detect facial expressions. But our software lets a computer make an aesthetic judgment. Linked to sentiments and abstract thought processes, humans can make a judgment, but they usually don't understand how they arrived at their conclusions.”