flawrencis

Q: Should I let Apple's face recognition learn ears?

I would have thought this a silly question until I began taking remedial steps that I won't be able to undo. Now, I just want to make sure the ear thing is actually a problem I should fix and not a useful thing I should appreciate.

 

For as long as I've been on Photos (~April 2015), it has detected ears and suggested them to me as faces. I once read that you can include the back of someone's head in their face album. The article implied that users (perhaps just lay ones) shouldn't worry about the person's obscured face or back-of-head screwing with the recognition algorithm. That's one piece of information.

 

The second is that perhaps Apple learns ears in order to identify profile photos. Maybe it learns a person's appearance according to its facial (frontal) features AND its ear (profile) features. In that case, I very well should be putting all images where my ear is exclusively circled into my face album.

 

Or maybe this is Apple's intention (although I cannot find anything to support this), but the software needs much development (like with African American faces). In that case, I wouldn't want to tell it to ignore the ears I see it's found; I'd just leave them be until the software is good enough to start profitably associating them with names.

 

I have been on the El Capitan Beta since my being invited between July and September.

 

Screen Shot 2016-02-15 at 12.42.56.png

The remedial steps I mentioned include making an album of ears and then, after catching many over the course of some time, selecting them all and choosing "Not a Face"

.Screen Shot 2016-02-15 at 12.41.11.png

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), Other OS, 10.11.4

Posted on Feb 15, 2016 3:55 AM

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Q: Should I let Apple's face recognition learn ears?

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Feb 15, 2016 5:35 AM in response to flawrencis
    Level 10 (106,831 points)
    iLife
    Feb 15, 2016 5:35 AM in response to flawrencis

    The face recognition will identify quite a few areas of a photo as a face, if it sees a pattern, where two dark spots could be seen as eyes.  I am seeing plenty of such false positives.  Faces in rock or in the bark of tree.  Just reject them as "Not a face" like you have done.  If you enlarge your ear photos, you will see the hidden faces in the section.

    Screen Shot 2016-02-15 at 13.40.27GMT.png

    Screen Shot 2016-02-15 at 13.46.18GMT.pngIt will even detect the faces of pets as faces occasionally:

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 15, 2016 9:08 AM in response to léonie
    Level 10 (84,570 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 15, 2016 9:08 AM in response to léonie

    And faces in Rocks, trees and the Face on Mars too

     

    LN