The Art (s and Crafts) and Science of Facial Recognition

Woo-hoo! It's almost Halloween, one of my favorite holidays.  Per a long-time, long-distance tradition with my mother, my first move was to sit "the family" down to watch Tim Burton's strange and inspiring The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Disney (Touchstone), 1993

I've found no better way to get in the goblins, ghosts, and ghouls mood than watching this movie.  To my horror, it was Drew's first time to watch it all the way through; he nevertheless found a noble way of commemorating its important place in our newly married tradition.

Disney.com

 

Impressive, no?

And Drew's not the only skilled at recognizing and rendering graphics across disparate media. 

(How's that for a segue!)  According to this article in LiveScience, Tel Aviv university is using computer software "based on facial recognition technology" to recognize-- and importantly, reunite-- "hundreds of thousands of fragments from medieval religious scrolls that are scattered across the globe" (Pappas).  Evidently, the program can distinguish handwriting, spacing, and even peculiar properties of the pages themselves.  

This new software isn't just for people who love old and dusty esoterica for ancientness' sake.  The Cairo Genizah (storage room for Jewish holy texts), for instance, "contains merchant's lists, divorce documents, and even personal letters" which will give scholars "a firsthand look at hundreds of years of history in the Middle East."  Indeed, scholars are even trying to use this technology to study the Dead Sea Scrolls, shown above.  For those interested, here is a LiveScience article about the Dead Sea Scrolls' digitization.

Well, that's all for now.  Until next time, stay ever-watchful; there's no telling what you might piece together.