Science's fascination with the face

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2014

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Face recognition The software that analyses images of your face, captured online or when you're out and about, has rapidly improved. Adam visits Amscreen, to test the cameras they deploy at supermarket checkouts to determine your age and sex, to inform advertisers of the best demographic to target. This raises ethical and privacy issues which Adam discusses with privacy expert Professor Colin Bennett and author of "The formula, about algorithms and the algorithm culture", Luke Dormehl.

Quantifying expressions Is a look of contempt, or a smile, a universal expression or do they vary across cultures? Marnie Chesterton visits Glasgow University's Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, where the scientists are building a huge database of faces, in order to unpick and quantify our expressions. Dr Oliver Garrod from the Generative Face Grammar Group demonstrates how they can capture your face, and animate it.

Evolutionary psychology There is a long list of evolutionary explanations for the human condition. Mostly these are quite trivial. Teen boys develop acne on their faces to deter females from fertile but psychologically immature mates. Babies cry at night to prevent parents further procreating, resulting in potential sibling rivals. At the other end of the scale, these sorts of explanations have been used to suggest deeply problematic ideas, such as rape being an evolutionary strategy.

Professor David Canter, a psychologist from University of Huddersfield has railed against this fashion for 'biologising' our behaviour. And evolutionary biologist Professor Alice Roberts is also critical of 'adaptionism' - the idea that everything has evolved for an optimal purpose.

Producer: Fiona Roberts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Hello you, this is the download of BBC Inside Science from Radio 4.
0:40.0	First broadcast on the 24th of July 2014. I'm Adam Rutherford. There's more information at
0:45.3	BBC.co.uk.
0:49.2	The front part of your head from the forehead to the chin and containing the eyes, nose and mouth.
0:55.2	That's the dictionary definition of a face.
0:58.0	But it is so much more than that our faces are pivotally important in the most quintessentially human characteristics, speech,
1:05.7	non-verbal communication, emotion, beauty.
1:09.0	That bit between your hairline and your chin is arguably the primary determinant of your identity.
1:15.8	And so this week's programme is all about the human face, how we register facial expressions
1:20.6	and how computers can do it, acnene and punchable jaws are they evolutionary adaptations.
1:26.0	Listen to three scientists get shirty with each other at the end of the program.
1:30.0	But first, babies as young as four months old can recognize faces better than other objects,
1:36.4	and now computers are catching up.
1:38.4	We already have facial recognition software that can automatically identify what type of human you are.
1:44.0	And this tech is already out there, used by advertisers to target particular demographics.
1:50.0	I visited Anne Screen in Central London to find out if their software could work out what I am.
	...

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