Faces

When I got my new computer, I got a new version of iPhoto along with it. When my library transfered over, I discovered a couple of things.

First, I have almost 10,000 photographs.

Second, I found out about Faces.

Faces is this thing in iPhoto that lets you look up photographs based on who is in them. Technically you should be able to click on "Steve" and a whole bunch of photos with Steve in them will show up. This would make certain projects a whole lot easier.

The thing about Faces is that it's not a person. It's a program that is built on mathematical or geometric formulas. It doesn't use things like logic. And my photograph collection has photos that span three boys from babyhood to the present moment, with faces going from round to less round over time.

So Faces will give you options. It shows a photo of Nate - the face close-up. I tag it as Nate, and then it will tell me that there are 879 other possible photographs of Nate, and I can confirm or deny these. Many of these photos are Nate. Many of these are also Nick or Andy, and a few of them are random children from birthday parties or who just happened to be staring into the camera in the background at Disneyworld or something.

One needn't actually go through all 879 photos. The program uses your answers to calculate more or less which photos are also of Nate, and which are not.

It's actually an amazing program. I thought it was just random, and that my kids would pop up because they were kids and they are in most of my photos. But when, for example, I slected Steve's Aunt Nancy, photos of Lillian (her sister) and Alicia (her daughter) started popping up as possibilities. I don't have an overwhelming number of photos of these people, so the program must recognize some structural resemblance, some genetic thing that they all have in common.

Of course, when I was tagging photos of myself, the program showed me pictures of both Steve's Uncle George and Miranda's Father as possible photos of "kathleen." And every time it does a match for anyone the program tries to make them a photo of Nate dressed up as a pirate.

In the end, I'm not sure how useful this application will be. But the process of tagging people and seeing what the program matches up as who is immensely entertaining.