HYDERABAD: Is your friend lying to you about her age? Can’t believe that you are older than rest of your teammates in the office? Well, you can now check the age of your friends and colleagues with just a click.
All you have to do is, go to the website, How-Old.net and upload their picture. How-old, which also comes as an app, has gone viral in the past few of days, as people play around finding the age of their friends or celebrities. One can also use the app to check age of celebrities. Some cautious one are also checking their ages.
Taking social vanity to a new height, Microsoft’s brainchild (that was, hold your breath, created in a day!), tells you how old you look by analysing the photo you update. The result, sometimes shockingly hits the bull’s eye and other times it is hilariously off the mark.
‘How old do I look?’ has set Twitterati and Facebook user on a laugh riot who are posting hilarious results they got on the website, with the hashtag #howoldrobot. It is also making a few people happy by showing result, less than their actual age.
But, anything that runs on a machine can not be trusted completely. So is the case with this website and app. Once you upload the picture, it scans facial features to reach its results. The resultant age would depend on the quality of photograph you upload. So don’t be surprised with the apology, “Sorry if we didn’t quite get the age and gender right” that comes with the age.
The website which was launched as part of Microsoft’s Project Oxford initiative, says the face detection technology could be used for sorting large photographic collection, apart from the fun that most of us are having these days.
Though the tool has become a viral hit, with those wary of security issues having found solace in the disclaimer, “P.S. We don’t keep the photo”– there is more than what meets the eye. The fine print of the terms of service for Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform has a different story to tell and for all you know your photo might become the face of Microsoft’s future advertisement! Simply put, by uploading the your picture on the website or app you allow the company and through it, its suppliers to use your pictures on its websites and for advertising.