Summary
Do you have a picture of someone and would like to know more about them?
The answer is to use face search engines, which can surface account profiles or (celebrity) lookalikes.
Paired with artificial intelligence, they can even estimate someone’s age, attractiveness, or BMI.
Zapp2Photo/Shutterstock
Here are the best face search engines you should try.
1.Google Images Search: Reverse Face Search
Did you know that you couldsearch Google by images?
smack the camera icon to search by image.
First, find a suitable Pinterest pin or create your own by uploading your target photo.
Then, initiate the Pinterest pin and snag the magnifying glass icon in the bottom-right corner of the image.
Pinterest will now show you similar pins.
Just adjust the selection frame to zone in on a face.
Clearly, you might only find images pinned on Pinterest, which limits this tool’s usefulness.
Check out ourbeginner’s guide to Pinterestif you’d like to explore other available features.
4.PicTriev: Face Recognition
PicTriev goes one step further by actually searching for similar faces.
Unfortunately, the feature is limited to lookalike celebrities.
For demonstration purposes, I used my own headshot.
While PicTriev correctly identified me as overwhelmingly female, the second match was Jason Clarke.
The age estimation of 29, however, is very flattering.
It works much better if you search for a celebrity image.
Click themeter iconin the top right, upload two photos, selectsimilarityoridentity, and let PicTriev do its calculations.
Before you add photos, be sure to follow the formatting instructions for the best results.
5.TinEye: Reverse Image Search
TinEye’s reverse image search works almost like Google.
you’re free to upload an image or paste a URL and search for it.
TinEye does not support any more search operators, making it both simpler and basic.
Also, it missed a newer result that its big brother had picked up.
To me, this indicates that TinEye’s search index is largely outdated.
PimEyes will find the original photos and other shots of Aniston.
I tried the service myself, providing PimEyes with three different photos of me to analyze.
There are other photos of me to be found online, and PimEyes did spot them.
7.Betaface: Facial Recognition Demo
Betaface offers afacial recognitionsearch similar to PicTriev’s photo identification.
You canupload an imageorsend the image URL.
First, the tool will analyze the image.
hit the rectangle drawn around the face to see the detailed results.
This tool is useful for uploading and comparing photos in bulk.
Both of these slow down the processing but will increase the quality of your matches.
8.How Normal Am I?
: Face Comparison
Do you wish you were special?
This is a fun experiment if you’re willing to expose your face through your webcam.
I took the test twice.
The results were quite wrong both times.
The first time, the algorithm thought I was a man and gave me a 33 percent normal score.
The second time, it correctly judged me as female and gave me an 18 percent normal score.
This art project was developed by Tijmen Schep using funding from the European Union.
Read the terms and conditions to find out how your data will be used.
9.Everypixel Age Recognition: Face Recognition
This tool uses a photo to guess the subject’s age.
While it guessed that I look 27 in the photo is quite flattering, it’s way off.
Microsoft used to offer a similar tool and learned some fascinating details.
You canlearn more about machine learning by using Microsoft Lobe.
Face recognition and search tools have a range of useful applications.
Moreover, face recognition can replace passwords and keys.
But there’s a dark side to every tool.
For example, the 2017Facezam viral marketing scamhighlighted what face recognition could do to your privacy.
Essentially, FindFace for Facebook.
And presumably, Facebook’s face search engine is better than the FBI’s identification tool.
And it’s all legal.
you could’t always hide your face, but you could protect your privacy online.
