Program Uses Selfies to Determine Life Expectancy

Face My Age determines your “face age” by evaluating everything from face shape to facial muscle

Your next selfie could be saying a little more about you than you think.

New facial recognition technology called Face My Age uses a selfie, along with a few personal details, to determine how long a person is expected to live and how old they look.

The program was developed by S. Jay Olshansky, a biodemographer from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Dr. Karl Ricanek Jr. from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

“Scientists know that 'looking old for your age' is associated with a higher risk of death, but research in this area involved only a handful of people looking at pictures of identical twins and deciding which looked older and younger,” according to the program’s website. “A subdomain of facial recognition coined facial analytics eliminates the judgment, automates the process of facial comparison for age, and establishes scientifically verified ‘ages’ of your face.”

The Face My Age site asks users to upload a photo, including the person’s age, birthday, gender and race, then asks questions about drug use, smoking, education, relationships, sun exposure and plastic surgery.

The program then uses that information to calculate your “face age,” expected lifespan and your probability of living over the ages of 65 and 85.

According to the site, Face My Age determines your “face age” by evaluating everything from face shape to facial muscle.

The results can be affected by poor photo quality and whether or not a person is smiling.

Olshansky said the next steps for Face My Age include age progression photos, which will allow users to see how they will look as they get older.

"You can actually see how you will look if you're a smoker, without smoking, excessive exposure to sun," he said.

The new features are expected to be implented on the site later this year.

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