Eye Tracking Identifying Facial Regions Giving Away Your Age
Some say age is just a number, but there is more to it than that. You may act younger or older than you actually are, but there are some characteristics of aging that can give your true number away. The American Academy of Ophthalmology published a study that used an eyetracker to investigate where people look to determine age and fatigue. The results revealed that age and fatigue signs are apparent in specific regions of the face.
Test subjects were shown pictures of human faces and asked to judge their age and use a scale from “not tired” to “most tired” to rate their appearance of fatigue. An Applied Science Laboratories Eye Tracker was used to evaluate gaze and fixation patterns by recording the eye movements and amount of time the gaze was focused on a specific spot as the subjects searched the faces for age and fatigue clues. Regions that received the longest fixation times were assumed to be the most significant for judging these states. For both age and fatigue assessment, the eye region, forehead, and nose were looked at most frequently. Within the eye region, the brows and lids received the highest fixation rates, meaning these features revealed the most about a person’s age and tiredness.
Now ladies, these results are no surprise to us. We are well aware of the regions that are most susceptible to the “W” word (yes, wrinkles) and have an entire arsenal of creams, foundations, and powders to conceal them. The study even ventures to conclude that “aesthetic or functional surgery to the eye region may be one of the most effective interventions in enhancing the appearance of an individual.” It would be interesting to see if eye tracking could be used in the same manner to evaluate the regions of the face that people use to gauge attractiveness. I’m willing to bet the results would be similar to this study since youth is commonly correlated with beauty.
Age and Fatigue related Markers of Human Faces: An Eye-Tracking Study
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