Do I Really Look Like That? (Plus, WeeMees)

I don't know if you've heard, but we've got some folks over at AOL Labs -- development teams in hidden research bunkers spread out across the US, India and China that try to play around and develop new... stuff, that might make it into future products. See more about who they are. (OK, I was kidding about the bunkers.)

One of their new things is the Find My Celebrity Look-Alike site, which uses "...facial recognition technology [that] was developed in collaboration with Oxford University and Caltech University" to find celeb photos that look like you. So I decided to give it a shot.

First, you need a full-front photo of your face. It's not like I have a shortage of those, but here's a new one from today:

You can upload a photo from your computer, or paste the URL address of one on the Web. Pick the gender of the celeb photos that you want included in the results (Both, Only Female or Only Male), and click the button. Super easy. But does it work? Here are my results:

You have got to be kidding me.

I think it could use a little more work. And that William Hung thing is killing me -- let's just say that I don't think Mr. William Hung is as good-looking as he is talented.

Right now, there isn't any Send to a Friend or Save This feature [Update: The team added Send to a Friend feature; they've also added in a Bollywood celebrity option], so you can try taking a screen shot if you want to grab your results screen for a blog entry. If you do a blog entry, leave me a comment with your URL, and you can also tag it with celebrity look alikes so we can take a look at it.

Also, I'm probably the last person in the company to do this, but I finally created a WeeMee icon that I use for my AIM & AOL Buddy Icon (when you're signed in, go to http://aim.weeworld.com/, build your WeeMee and then save it -- it should associate with your screen name) -- here it is:

It's a pretty fair likeness, though I know some folks who look exactly like their WeeMees.

Because I wanted to, I made an animated gif mashing together my WeeMee and the photo I used above, so you can judge for yourself:

If you make a WeeMee and blog about it, you know the drill -- leave a comment with a link to your entry, and tag it with weemee so we marvel at your artistry.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol labs, weemee, celebrity look alikes

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This entry has 7 comments: (Add your own)

#7 Comment from ceilisundancer
5/23/07 10:39 AM | Permalink

Sigh. I created a weemee, that was fun!, but it's not showing on my AIM page? I did click save. I was signed in to my aol SN, is that what you meant by signed in? Thanks! p.s. -- William H. has nothing on you, that's ,um ,not a match. Russell Crowe is hot, though. lol
#6 Comment from mchwalte
5/23/07 12:54 AM | Permalink

Ok I did mine.

You can find it here. http://mchwalte.blogspot.com/
#5 Comment from mavarin
5/23/07 12:32 AM | Permalink

The only visual features you have in common with those guys, Joe, are the defaults that come with being male and human. You're kind of cute on your own merits, IMO.

And as long as I'm here, I may as well mention that I wrote (briefly) about your cameo in The Last Colony:

http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2007/05/only-partly-scalzi-centric.html

And one technical issue. The last 24 hours, when signed in to AOL and using the bundled AOL browser, I've had to SIGN IN to AOL at the browser level before leaving a journal comment. I'm used to this happening with Firefox or even Netscape, but from inside AOL? Is this a glitch, or a permanent (and useless) change in the way things work?

Regards,
Karen
#4 Comment from dpoem
5/22/07 11:45 PM | Permalink

Hey! I stumbled upon the AOL Greenhouse a couple of days ago, and was kind of wondering about it. But, now, it seems like pretty much the same thing as the lab.

That whole AIM Google-Earth gizmo seems kind of wild.

Anyway, as for the picture, I'm sorry you got pegged with William Hung. That sort of revelation would lead me to dunk my head in a bucket of lye, scrub my face with a belt sander, and develop a very serious drinking problem.

If it helps though, I got David Hasselhoff and Steve Buscemi the last time I did one of those.

-Dan
http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/
#3 Comment from csandhollow
5/22/07 11:09 PM | Permalink

Ok I did it.

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Do I Really Look Like That? (Plus, WeeMees)