How Normal Am I? is an interactive online experience that aims to raise awareness about facial recognition and artificial intelligence systems. It accesses the user’s camera and applies a facial recognition algorithm that judges the user’s face, accompanied by an explanatory commentary by the author.
By seeing how the algorithm – correctly or incorrectly – estimates one’s age, gender, beauty, and other factors, the user begins to critically reflect on the use and efficiency of facial recognition systems.
Die Website “How normal am I?” ist ein interaktives Online-Erlebnis, das das Bewusstsein für Gesichtserkennung und Künstliche Intelligenz-Systeme schärfen soll. Es verwendet die Kamera des Nutzers und einen Gesichtserkennungsalgorithmus, der das Gesicht des Nutzers beurteilt, begleitet von einem erklärenden Kommentar des Autors.
Indem die Nutzer*innen sehen, wie der Algorithmus – richtig oder falsch – Alter, Geschlecht, Schönheit und andere Faktoren einschätzt, beginnen sie, kritisch über den Einsatz und die Funktionsweise von Gesichtserkennungssystemen nachzudenken.
The interactive documentary “How Normal Am I?”, which was launched by our artist-in-residence Tijmen Schep in October 2020, demonstrates the utilization of facial recognition algorithms to evaluate individuals. Through a test, the documentary examines and scores your face based on age, beauty, and gender. It also evaluates your emotional state and estimates your BMI, and life expectancy.
The documentary emphasizes the lack of reliability in facial recognition algorithms and stresses the significance of protecting privacy as a fundamental human right and “our right to be different.” Privacy can be viewed as a right to be imperfect.
“How Normal Am I?” has garnered a significant increase in interest in recent weeks, possibly due to some TikTokkers experimenting with the project’s beauty scoring feature. Within a week, the documentary was watched 100,000 times, and as of the writing of this blog, it has accumulated a total of 426,000 views.
The project is a contender for the best .eu website of the year. The public can cast their votes for the outcome at the .eu Web Awards, so if you appreciate the project, your vote would be valued. It only requires a single click.
Additionally, the project has been entered into the IDFA Doclab competition. Doclab is a component of the International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) that concentrates on interactive media.
If you have not yet explored the documentary due to skepticism, vlogger Voy Zan has produced a YouTube video that guides you through the project.
“How How Normal Am I?” Key Features
- Face Recognition Technology: “How Normal Am I” uses artificial intelligence technology to analyze faces and give results based on attributes including beauty, age, life expectancy, body mass index, emotional state, and more.
- Interactive Documentary: The interactive documentary helps explore how face recognition technology works and helps users experience themselves whether the results provided are accurate or not.
- Comparing you to Others: This feature provides an in-depth experience using “How Normal Am I. It works beyond the numeric score and contextualizes results based on an average of past users by reflecting real-life AI evaluations. The feature provides users with the highlights shifting from online to biometric tracking occurring by unchangeable facial traits.
- Insights: How Normal Am I offers insights into the perception of facial features based on the opportunity for self-reflection, cultural awareness, and social experimentation.
- Privacy: It accesses your camera as it is necessary to provide a better user experience but the privacy remains intact as it does not collect personal data.
Why you should use “How Normal Am I”?
The tool offers users with great experience by providing insights into how AI algorithms work and encouraging discussion with others. It can be used for educational purposes such as helping people understand complex subjects like psychology and sociology and more.
How normal am I Use Cases?
- Self-Reflection: Discover how AI perceives your facial features and gain insight into its assessment of your appearance.
- Privacy-Focused Analysis: Assess your facial characteristics through AI without compromising personal data privacy, as no personal information is collected.
- EU-Supported Exploration: Engage in a unique experience backed by the support of the European Union, offering a new perspective on self-perception and artificial intelligence.
Pros
- Completely Free
- Easy to use
- Offers insight into how the AI sees you
Cons
- The tool can give varied results
Pricing
- Free