Maybe they don't all rook arike

[Samurai_Jerk]

Every Asian American has been asked this question. A computer gives the best answer.

To be Asian in America is to be quizzed, constantly, about your ethnicity. What are you? Where are you from? No, but where are your parents from?

Nowadays, such questions are more awkward than ominous. But there was a time when this was a national obsession of sorts — when splashy magazines like Life published guides to help readers distinguish between the “parchment yellow” Chinese with their “finely-bridged” noses, and the “earthy yellow” Japanese, with their “massively boned faces.”

Recently, computer scientists at the University of Rochester tried to teach an algorithm to tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese and Korean faces. They wanted to explore how advancements in artificial intelligence have made it easier for computers to interpret pictures in sophisticated ways. But, intentionally or not, their research taps into the uncomfortable history of how Asians have struggled to fit into American life.

The scientists were inspired by a quiz created by Japanese American web designer Dyske Suematsu. Fifteen years ago, Suematsu decided, half-jokingly, to investigate the stereotype that Asians all look alike. He threw a party in New York City and invited Asian friends. He put their portraits on the Internet and asked strangers to guess their ethnicity.

The website was a huge hit, quickly becoming one of the web’s first viral sensations. Suematsu says that millions have registered and taken the test. On average, people identify 7 out of 18 photos correctly — an accuracy rate of about 39 percent. That's barely better than pure guessing, which would yield an accuracy rate of 33 percent, on average.

“This is a challenging task even for humans,” said Jiebo Lu, a professor of computer science at the University of Rochester. “I asked some of my students to take the test and they all failed horribly — even though all of them were Asian.”

Lu and his students suspected that a trained artificial intelligence might be able to perform as well, or even better. Recently, they collected hundreds of thousands of pictures of East Asian faces and fed them through an algorithm to figure out just what made Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people look different. In a draft report detailing their results, they provide samples of the pictures fed to the computer.

But despite what they expected to be a difficult task, the scientists were surprised to discover that the computer could achieve accuracy rates of over 75 percent.

chineseorjapanese.jpg

[wagyl]

Dyske Suematsu.

Mangling was not restricted to Ellis Island*. Even with that spelling I am sure he doesn't get the desired pronunciation.

* Yes, I know the whole Ellis Island thing is a myth: the Immigration Officers did not ask people their names, they went off official ship passenger lists, so the mangling or forced assimilation occurred somewhere else, earlier in the process.

[matsuki]

“This is a challenging task even for humans,” said Jiebo Lu, a professor of computer science at the University of Rochester. “I asked some of my students to take the test and they all failed horribly — even though all of them were Asian.”

While I think it's a losing proposition to think anyone can be an "expert" at this. (75% is an improvement but far from accurate) In my experience, SE Asians (actually from Asia) tend to be the worst at this shit because there is such a focus on "pure" (Dicksuki Suiman's site mentions it) this or that when it's obviously not that simple and many carry around stereotypical (exaggerated) baggage about other Asian features and styles. I won't rehash my Christmas story again but in case you missed it, I picked out a Japanese girl as Korean and got shit for it until the jikoshokai started and she said she was Japanese, born and raised...but her parents were from Korea.(cue the heeeee's and kankokujin mienai's) Not to mention all the haafu or gaijin mitai Japaneeeeze. Do they make up 25%?

[Takechanpoo]

even you western fellows can clearly distinguish specific northern european from the other ones? i guess not.

if you see the array of the ppl of iceland, norway, sweden, denmark, german, holland, english or irish in the same condition of the vid, who the fuck on earth can explicitly spot the nationalities of all of them without a mistake? the same goes for mediterranean ppl and african ppl. the point is why the same looking thing comes into question only in the case of yellow ppl. the answer is that western and the other world ppl still dont regard yellow ppl as individual equal to them but as something like material.

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classification is done depending on the needs.

Maybe they don't all rook arike

chinese can pronounce L but not R. its quite the opposite in the case of japanese. remember it.

[kurogane]

So am I wrong to take ( ) credit for having been right longer than the internet has been around by arguing that for the most part, or statistically speaking, most people can't distinguish between "Asians" and especially North East Asians, and especially when they aren't Asians but Asian-Americans? The differences are cultural not physical: change the makeup, hair and physical deportment and they are structurally indistinguishable (at a broader statistical level). And that allows for the painfully crappy methodology of what was a very fun and enjoyable Internet trope back in the day, and for how stupid and racist you white people are.

[Coligny]

even you western fellows can clearly distinguish specific northern european from the other ones? i guess not.
t.

Since this is almost as scientific as phrenology you can bet/guess/wank all you want about it.

Have you considered stopping to drink bleach and vape lead extracts ?