Genetic Algorithms: Evolving Human Faces

[jobeirne]

This is not a genetic algorithm; this is a steady-state-ish (MU, LAMBDA) evolution strategies algorithm. Genetic algorithms imply crossover, not simply mutation.

People have gotta stop referring to population-based methods of stochastic search as "genetic algorithms".

[lbrandy]

Our algorithm is also not a "face detector". It's a feature-based machine-learned image classifier that was trained on faces and non-faces. However, when speaking to those presumably without a background in machine learning, I think "face detector" conveys more information.

Also, the title "Steady-state-ish (MU, LAMBDA) evolution strategies algorithm, and/or population-based stochastic search: Evolving Human Faces" is too long.

[RiderOfGiraffes]

This is some definition of "gotta" with which I was not previously acquainted. People will use technical terms in a manner that is not technically accurate. You can't stop them, it's part of the way language and communication works.

It's annoying, it's inaccurate, it's occasionally misleading, but it's inevitable.

[ccc3]

I'm not sure you're right about that. I think of a genetic algorithm as an optimization algorithm that imitates a genetic reproductive process. This algorithm seems to be a rough approximation of binary fission instead of sexual reproduction. Still a genetic process, just a different one than is typically used.

[sep332]

Yeah, this is basically just Newton's method of approximation, seeded with a random initial value. It will eventually converge on a local maximum defined by the facial recognition function.

[badger7]

Your point is lost under a sea of attitude. Shame.

@lbrandy: Awesome, if slightly mislabelled, work.