Ryan O’Bryan Tests the Accuracy of How-Old.Net

The goal of the website, How-Old.net, is to see if a computer program can accurately guess the age of the person a photo uploaded to the site. You know I won't believe anything until I try it myself, so let's see what happens.

I could try to sit here and explain how this site uses an algorithm developed by people who are infinitely smarter than I am to analyze your face and determine your age, but I'm an idiot. If you're really that interested in learning how it works, you can find that information here (feel free to explain it to me if you understand it).

Like any good experiment, I uploaded multiple pictures to the site to see if the results matched, or were at least in the same ballpark. I also used different facial expressions to see if that had any effect on the result.

Before we get started, I should probably let you know that I am 38 years old.

TEST #1

First up, a side-by-side comparison of a "happy" expression and a more "serious" expression.

I was a little surprised by the result here. Not so much the age guess (off by eight and six years, respectively), but by the fact the "happy" expression resulted in a older result. I would have thought the furrowed brow and squinted eyes of my "serious" expression would have exposed the crow's feet that have developed in the corners of my eyes and therefore led to a higher number.

With that said, after a second look the raised brow in the photo on the left did cause my forehead fat (I have thick skin, literally) to wrinkle up a little bit, while my smile pushed my cheeks up exposing more of the crow's feet and a little baggage under my eyes.

Mental Note: Quit smiling, it makes you look older.

TEST #2

For this one I used my profile picture from this website (taken roughly a year ago) where my face is angled a little away from the camera. The result was interesting, and not very flattering for my ego.

61?!?! How in the world does this photo make me look 23 years older than I actually am? Again, the forehead wrinkles are really pronounced in the photo, so maybe that's it, but the crow's feet aren't there, and overall, my skin looks relatively smooth (thanks Photoshop!). I could see a result similar to the first two above, but being off by 23 years is something I can't figure out.

At the end of the day, this is just a fun little experiment by computer programmers testing the limits of what a computer program can do, so I'm not going to let this ruin my day.

But if I did learn anything, it's that I need to get that fat forehead of mine taken care of.

To answer the question of whether or not it's accurate, that seems to depend on what kind of photo you upload.

See what results you get at How-Old.net, and post your results in the comments below.