Natural barcodes help us recognise faces

Our faces contain 'barcodes' of information which help us recognise people and may have implications for improving face recognition software, according to a study co-authored by Steven Dakin of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology published today in the Journal of Vision . Faces are unique in their ability to convey a vast range of information about people, including their gender, age, and mood. For social animals, such as humans, the ability to locate a face is important as this is where we pick up many of our cues for social interactions. While recognising a person's face is a complex process, the first steps to processing visual information in the brain are thought to be more basic and to rely on the orientation of features such as lines. By manipulating images of the faces of celebrities such as Coldplay's Chris Martin (incidentally, a UCL Greek & Latin alumnus) and actor George Clooney, Dakin and Professor Roger Watt from the University of Stirling showed that nearly all the information we need to recognise faces is contained in horizontal lines, such as the line of the eyebrows, the eyes and the lips. Further analysis revealed that these features could be simplified into black and white lines of information - in other words, barcodes. 'Exposed skin on our forehead and cheeks tends to be shiny whilst our eyebrows and lips and the shadows cast in the eye sockets and under the nose tend to be darker,' said Dakin.