Facebook develops AI to open eyes in blinking pictures

There are numerous apps used where people touch up their pictures to remove pimples, red-eye or such. Facebook has taken the same approach and introduced an artificially intelligent (AI) system that fixes closed eyes in pictures.

Social media service Facebook is using a machine learning method known as ‘generative adversarial network’ (GAN). In it Facebook researchers taught an AI to analyze an image in which a person has blinked and compare it to an unblinking photo of the same person. The technique then uses ‘in-painting’ for replacing the closed eyelids with open eyes.

A paper was released by Facebook researchers Cristian Canton Ferrer and Brian Dolhansky that explained the process in detail. The two researchers taught the AI to match traits such as skin tone, iris color, lighting and eye contours.

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Tech Radar explains, the photos were then given to the participants involved in the study and were asked to distinguish which eyes were original. The results showed that 54% of the time, the volunteers picked the in-painted eyes or were not able to tell the difference.

The researchers confessed that they did faced issues while generating eyes from some of the original pictures and the results weren’t exactly perfect, especially of those people who wore glasses or whose hair covered their eyes. But, they both are sure that in future they can solve these issues.

Furthermore, CNET reports that the technology is still in its research stage, but it’s an indication that Facebook is trying to maintain an upper-hand as a photo sharing site.