Scientists Create Santa-Detecting Software to Identify Jolly Old Elf
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Scientists created a Santa-detection machine using facial recognition software to identify Santa based on his distinctive facial features.
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The software was trained on multiple images of Santa from the internet and tested on additional Santa images as well as images of other adult and elderly bearded men.
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The research found that Santa's face is distinguishable from other men, proving he has a unique facial phenotype.
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The software did not categorize images of Saint Nicholas or Walter Clement Shields (a proposed historical Santa prototype) as Santa.
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The researchers suggest further developing the software to provide Santa "lookalike" scores and testing whether other folklore characters have distinct recognizable faces.