Two Facebookhave created an artificial intelligence tool that can open the eyes of people who have their eyes closed in photos, the company revealed this week.
Although the idea is still in the research, it is the first technology of its kind to "correct" closed eyes in photos, taking into account variables such as lighting. Adobe, the leading photo editing software, does not yet have the ability to do this.
While it's still unclear whether Facebook will ever use this method to fix photos on the social network, it could raise privacy concerns. The company has already been accused of using AI facial recognition technology without users' permission to suggest tags in photos.
Facebook's accusers claim that the feature violates laws that prohibit companies from collecting users' biometric data without their permission. And this new processing feature relies solely on the collection, use, and control of a user's biometric information.
The technology works by training the AI tool on photos of people with their eyes open, taking into account factors such as eye shape and color, and then the software can use this data to convey “open eyes” in the photos.
The technology isn't perfect, however, as it couldn't successfully open eyes on faces taken at odd angles, people wearing sunglasses, or faces not looking straight ahead. Facebook researchers believe this can be fixed by further training the technology with more photos, a wider variety of faces, and settings.
It remains to be seen what Facebook will ultimately do with this powerful new tool and whether it will ever be able to make it useful for its 2.2 billion active users.
