Machine assessment of images

Overread · May 24, 2009

ACQUINE: Aesthetic Quality Inference Engine - Intelligent, Unbiased and Instant Assessment of Photos

well this online machine claims to assess images and give you an overall score on what it sees. Now I am sure most people are going to be very skeptical about this, plus nobody likes having a computer tell them what it thinks.
So aside from the fun of finding out what images score highest - how do you feel about this? I am sure oneday cameras will be able to output photo quality on the back of the LCD heck they might even be able to bleep at us before we take the shot to say don't bother

Do we really want this high level of automation - where we don't learn but rather are forced/encouraged to stick to specific rules within photography- and more if a machine can be made to accuratly tell asthetic quality what does that say about our tastes in art as a whole - are we that predictable?

ps it seems semi accurate:
IMG_0010 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
scored really low.....

ok the machine hates me
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24534478@N04/3328482195/in/set-72157614612866475/
only scores 24!!!!!!!

Dwig · May 24, 2009

There are two excellent discussions about and around AQUINE on The Online Photographer:

The Online Photographer: Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!

The Online Photographer: Colorless Green Photographs

excellent reads, both.

Overread · May 24, 2009

after reading the first it sort of supports my hunch that high contrast changes and strong saturation are popular features that it looks for - certainly the test shots that it displays (At random) each seem to have high contrast and saturation.
anyone got a really contrasty bit of rubbish or a really low contrast (not B&W as I think it might look for something else with such an image) low saturation wonder shot?

Dwig · May 24, 2009

I found the point concerning borders interesting. It seems that ACQUINE likes framing clearly defined and misinterprets an artificial border, even if it contains a grey step wedge and color chart, as part of the actual image and increases the rating when present.

Overread · May 24, 2009

true - though I guess when ever you see "professional" shots they often do have a boarder applied to them. Though whilst I do think it affects how one appreciates an image I don't think its as big a factor as the machine was thinking it was.