So Karl and I just got the new iPhoto. It is pretty similar to the old one but it has some new features. One of said features is the facial recognition software. As you label pictures it remembers faces and features of the face. It becomes an obsessive game as you try to match all the pictures of a certain person. Karl and I were working on Dad Pipkin. The adventure went something like this:

We had labeled a few pictures and it started us our really well.
What! Randal?! Randal is NOT Dad Pipkin. (Just a note, the picture quality may vary. The green label says “Dad Pipkin” and the red label says “Not Dad Pipkin.”)

We scrolled down the page…What!? Well lets be honest, Mixing Brandon and Dad up is not that big of a mix up…but Brother Beleshi from the Tirana 2nd Branch?
We labeled them and moved on…and then it started to get weird…
Dad, Dad, Motra Brundage’s dad,
Senior Missionary from my mission, Dad, and…Jared? I guess my dad looks kinda…NO he looks nothing like any of these people!
Then…Dad, Uncle Greg? Dad. OK, I guess I can see it in the nose and the eyes with Dad and Greg. Dad, Greg…Grandpa Barainca? I don’t know.. Grandma, Mom, what do you think? I guess they have a similar squint.
Then came the inevitable…Cameron. He squints in a very similar way…it must run in the family.

OK…then it started to get really weird… dad and Krysta!

I don’t see it.

We started to see some repeats, then a new face…Zach!

And then of course this old timey imprisoned polygamist….

Then it really started to go transgender on me!

Betsy, Aunt Janet, Sarah, Elder Palmer, and MOM! You know, my mom did once say, ” The longer and longer people are married the more and more they start to look alike.” He he he.

In an effort to refine our search we went to albums that I know I have pictures of dad. I pulled up pictures from Christmas. The thing is that the program’s facial recognition software can’t differentiate between a person, and a picture of a person:

I mean really…

We moved on to Cameron. Things were worse.

After identifying only 2 pictures of Cameron, these are what it started to suggest were him…
Me, a man, Professor Ron Jacques of the BYU-I Psychology Department,
ASL Sister from the MTC, Some Albanian men. I started to think, and I realized it is because Cameron is always pulling weird faces.
See the one in the middle…it is matching to this labeled picture of Cameron…
More? OK…Karl, Grandpa B, Guy…CAMERON!, Karl, NPH.

Karl, Albanian investigator Clara, Paul Witzel, on his wedding day, guy, Karl, and Cimi Maluku. All of these people, are not Cameron.

So what did we learn.

1) This facial recognition stuff is fun…I mean hilarious and fun.
2) The smaller and grainier the picture is, the less likely it is to have a positive match.
3) When people make funny faces, they get matched with funny faces.
4) Cameron looks like my Albanian investigators, my husband, and Neil Patrick Harris.
5) All squinting people look the same.
6) Not all faces are created equal.

Other note by Karl:
The facial recognition also works in two parts, first is actually detecting a face, then trying to recognize who the face is. iPhoto actually has a harder time with the first part. A face turned to the side is hardly ever detected, and for some reason a face that is slanted even 15 degrees is never detected. So in the future when Apple’s world-dominating robots are after you, just cock your head to the side.