# facial recognition **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2003, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588 "2003-04-14T08:18:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![humbleopinion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@humbleopinion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humbleopinion)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/1 "2003-04-14T08:18:43Z")
I have become increasingly intrigued and amazed at our ability to recognise people. Family, friends, celebrities, can all be instantly recognised even if in a totally unexpected place - miles away or years away from previous sightings. Since faces have very few ‘landmarks’ then the ability to differentiate even closely similar faces is surely amazing. Can anyone supply any links that go into this or into the chances of accidentally bumping into and recognising someone unexpectedly? ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/2 "2003-04-14T08:28:30Z")
[http://www.cs.rug.nl/~peterkr/FACE/face.html](http://www.cs.rug.nl/~peterkr/FACE/face.html) is a good place with lots of links, and source code, if you’re into playing with some mechanics yourself. It is an amazing feat, but actually there are many “landmarks.” And we’ve been designed by many generations of evolution to specifically pick out other human faces. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/3 "2003-04-14T17:37:14Z")
What do you call an incapacitation of this ability? (I’ve got that) ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/4 "2003-04-14T18:02:39Z")
Visual agnosia? That doesn’t just apply to faces though. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/5 "2003-04-14T18:12:52Z")
Mine doesn’t either, unfortunately, it’s just that that’s the most annoying manifestation. With most other things, people don’t expect you to recognize and identify things based purely on what they look like; or, if they do, the appearances are more distinctive to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/6 "2003-04-14T18:31:53Z")
I’m in your boat, **AHunter3**. I have to meet someone several times before I remember them by face. It has sometimes led to unintended insults, regrettably. ---
**Author:** ![Goodbeem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/958977/32.png) [@Goodbeem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goodbeem)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/7 "2003-04-14T19:42:59Z")
The inability to recocognize faces (mostly due to brain damage, I’m not sure wether it is called the same when it occurs spontaneously) is called [prosopagnosia](http://www.prosopagnosia.com). And you right that is almost never **solely** applies to faces, allthough hard core adherents of modularity like to believe so. -Martijn ---
**Author:** ![Goodbeem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/958977/32.png) [@Goodbeem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goodbeem)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/8 "2003-04-14T20:15:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Posted by Goodbeem > And you right that is almost never you **are** right \*\* it\*\* almost never solely applies to faces The inability to recognize typos is much more widespread and generally known as “stupitity” (especially when using preview). ---
**Author:** ![Goodbeem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/958977/32.png) [@Goodbeem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goodbeem)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/9 "2003-04-14T20:18:18Z")
oh, and whether… ---
**Author:** ![Goodbeem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/958977/32.png) [@Goodbeem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goodbeem)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/10 "2003-04-14T20:20:19Z")
oh, and whether… ::hangs head in shame, whines “will I ever learn…”:: ---
**Author:** ![Tommyturtle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@Tommyturtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommyturtle)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/11 "2003-04-14T20:20:26Z")
I have that too…I live in a very small town and everyone knows everyone…it is so frustrating to have someone walk up and start talking to you when you have no idea who they are. I’ve gotten very good at identifying them based on the conversation and few ever know I cannot recognize them. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/12 "2003-04-14T20:43:16Z")
While I have no trouble recognizing family members and friends, sometimes I have trouble recognizing people of lesser acquaintance if I meet them outside of the environment I am used to seeing them in (such as work). At work, no problem, but in a store, for example, they may not be wearing the clothes I expect to see them in. Sometimes I will be used to seeing someone with or without a hat on and then when the opposite occurs I’m thrown off track. One time some people my parents know came over to visit while I was there. I had always seen them in their place of business but this time they were at my parent’s house while I was there. For a moment I thought one of them was my aunt and I was about to give her a hug before I realized who she really was (someone I don’t know closely enough where a hug would have been appropriate). There have been times when I am in a store and someone who recognizes me says hello. It’s embarrassing to stand there and try to remember who it is without looking like an idiot. Other times I will have to look at someone more than once to determine if he or she is someone I know before making the possibly embarrassing mistake of greeting them. It seems that perhaps I have a mild form of prosopagnosia (unless it’s one of those “binary” conditions, either you have it or you don’t). ---
**Author:** ![Goodbeem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/958977/32.png) [@Goodbeem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goodbeem)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/13 "2003-04-14T20:57:45Z")
trying to get it right in one go… I don’t think it is an “all or none phenomenon”. I’m only familiar with the brain damage variety, where the amount of damage obviously influences the amount of blindness and mild and severe cases are possible. But again, there might be other causes, it’s been a while. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/14 "2003-04-14T21:43:31Z")
My experiences are almost identical to what **dwc1970** describes. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/15 "2003-04-14T21:56:54Z")
Slightly off-topic, but it’s equally amazing how little information is required for our brains to perceive _a_ face. Hence several well-known optical illusions and the infamous Face on Mars fiasco. ---
**Author:** ![humbleopinion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@humbleopinion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humbleopinion)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-recognition/168588/16 "2003-04-21T09:55:48Z")
I hoped for responses on topic rather than on anti-topic. Anyone know any more? Especially about the ‘meeting people away from home’