How-Old.net got people's ages wrong, but all is just for laughs.
According to a report by China.org, the newly released how-old.net app, which is a face detection app developed by Microsoft, is hitting all of China's most popular social networking sites like WeChat by storm.
Within only a few hours after its launch on April 30, the app has already accumulated a massive 210,000 photos form users worldwide.
Initially the application was only launched during Microsoft's Build Conference in order to present what their cloud computing service can produce, shutting it down as soon as the event was over. With its unprecedented popularity, however, the company decided to allow the site to continue to run.
The results of the app are by far inaccurate. However, users are very much entertained, posting their pictures online with the application indicating how much younger they are than their true age. In one instance, a 30-year-old user was tagged by how-old.net as a decade younger at 11 years old.
Celebrities like Liu Xiaoqing and Lin Chi-ling also joined the trend. Xiaoqing, 58, was tagged 14 by the app, while Chi-ling, who is actually 41, 33 years old.
While most Chinese citizens enjoy the application as just recreational fun, there are some who are concerned that the photos may be used for surveillance. Microsoft, however, quickly dissipated these allegations, assuring its patrons that no images are used for malicious purposes.
How-old.net leaves so much to be desired in accuracy when it comes to facial recognition applications. However short-lived its popularity may be, the tweaking of its technology is worth the research, reported the article.
