And in the category of strangely useful software:
Now even computers are going to be critical of how we look: algorithms are getting into style. New software judges outfits from a photograph and offers tips to make them look even more chic. …
To teach the software about fashion, Urtasun’s team showed it thousands of pictures from Chictopia, a popular style website. The more positive votes left by other users, the more “fashionable” the software perceived the look to be.
It also noted other information about the photo, such as the user’s geographic location, the date they had posted it, the background of the picture, and written descriptions of the clothing.
The resulting software uses this information to categorise outfits and make suggestions based on what was successful for others in similar situations – for example, to add black boots or try something in pastel. The team plans to hone the results further by showing it a more diverse array of photos from other sources.
The next step being the creation of the latest fashion trend by an algorithm?
(NewScientist 20 June 2015, paywall)
(Random thought on four hours of sleep: are algorithms the souls of computers?)
