'How Old Do I Look?' - New Website Guesses Your Age

Social media has been nuts today with users posting pictures of themselves with a box around their face and a number floating above it. I had to investigate.

How-Old.net is a website created by Microsoft that allows users to upload a picture and have the API (application-programming interface) predict the age and gender of the faces recognized in that picture. The site address was originally sent to a few people but when Microsoft ran the analytics they were amazed at the response and hurriedly put the site together.

It's very apparent that all of bugs aren't worked out because each picture I've posted gets tagged with a different age. Let me explain visually.

The photo below was taken earlier this year. In it I'm 40 years old and Gloriana's Mike Gossin is in his mid-twenties. The program added sixteen years to my age and I'm pretty sure a few to Mike's as well.

Okay, now let's see if we can trick the program. Does distorting your face mess up the accuracy of the guessed age?

My friend Anna (MomStrong) and her kids were in studio with me a few months back. My age in the picture is 40, Anna is 29 and her children are 10, 8, 6, and 4. We took two pictures, one with normal, smiling faces and one making goofy faces.

In our picture with normal faces, the program nailed my age, took a few years off of Anna and correctly guessed one of the children's age.

When we distorted our faces, Anna and I got younger while the kids got older!

It's not a perfect science but fun nonetheless. Check it out for yourself. Heck, it could be a boost to your ego if it constantly guesses you're younger than you are! Unfortunately for me, I need to walk around with funny look on my face if I don't want to look 40.

I'll close with another one, just for laughs! It's a pic that Miranda Lambert and I took together when I was 8.