
The Boombox Incident: removing bald people from photos - mbil
https://matthewbilyeu.com/blog/2019-03-21/the-boombox-incident
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jedimastert
For the actual removal, you could try using conent-aware resizing[1] along
with blob detection to give the person to be removed a negative weight.

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qadw0BRKeMk&t=3m43s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qadw0BRKeMk&t=3m43s)

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dsr_
I wonder how well it works on people who have a skin color closer to their
hair color.

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swish_bob
I was about to suggest it really needs to at least be tried on people with
darker skin tones.

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Double_a_92
Or old white people.

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sandworm101
Or blonde white people.

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swish_bob
People who aren't in Seinfeld.

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icebraining
This comment is outrageous, egregious, preposterous!

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mkagenius
Deep learning with a 100 samples can do this completely with the body too.
This is a similar project I did:
[https://comic2gif.com](https://comic2gif.com) where I remove the speech
written on the images, the same technology can be used here.

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nacs
But edge detection is a lot easier on comics than on photos I would think. The
background on a comic would also have a mostly solid color background which
makes it easier.

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mkagenius
> But edge detection is a lot easier on comics than on photos I would think

That should be true. But deep learning based models work quite good on natural
images as Vgg dataset is mostly natural. This is perhaps one-off
usage/application on comics.

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cantcomplain
I know this was a joke but I still wanted to see more examples

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mbil
hey, author here, thanks for the attention on this post, especially the
feedback regarding CV techniques. i wanted to write about some basic computer
vision tools in the context of a Seinfeld reference. it was intended as a
joke, but i realize it could be hurtful. i'm sorry if i hurt anybody's
feelings.

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smashingfiasco
I really like that you explained the algorithm and decisions you were making
instead of just ploping code some on the page.

Well done!

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Grustaf
As a photo store clerk I can confirm that this is indeed one of the most
frequent requests we get, so this could be a huge timesaver. But you really
need to work on the removal part, it’s practically unusable as it is!

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amelius
When they apply this to the DVD cover of Die Hard 4, what would the result be?

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qrbLPHiKpiux
George is by far my favorite sitcom character. His schizo-nuances and paranoia
and hilarious! I can relate.

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throwaway8879
Very much agreed. That character is so memorable that it's difficult for me to
think of him playing a non-George role. I think the actor had trouble with
post-Seinfeld roles too.

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Insanity
For me it's the same with characters from Friends. I can't see them in another
role (except Jennifer, it's kind of odd to see her in other things but not as
much as the others).

That being said, George is an absolutely great character and one of my
favourites in sitcoms :) Just reading these comments makes me want to rewatch
Seinfeld.

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lainga
I thought David Schwimmer was pretty perfect as Cpt. Sobel in BoB.

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Insanity
Yeah, might depend on the movie / series. I did like LeBlanc in "Episodes" as
well :)

Overall, seeing them will always remind me of their characters though.

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partiallypro
Now show how to add back a cartoon character drawing of the boss (bald man,)
like in the show.

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scrp
So close!

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birdiesanders
As a bald man, I approve!

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thih9
Loosely related video, Star Trek actor talks about being bald:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqm_Iq8rFeg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqm_Iq8rFeg)
.

I'm linking it to remind that perceiving baldness as something negative (here:
a criterion for removal from a photo) can be a cause of distress and loss of
confidence.

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throwaway8879
I do understand why people would feel insecure about baldness. Is it changing
for the better though? Loads of "cool" bald people, think Vin Diesel etc. I
still have a head full of hair and just turned 30. Not sure how I'd feel as
I've had long hair all my life. I do feel that the volume isn't as high as it
was in my early 20s..

I hope we make some progress in a cure either way.

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adrianN
There is medication that can prevent baldness. It has very rare, but very
scary side-effects though. Eventually we might have something that fixes the
genes responsible for baldness.

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max76
I don't feel like baldness is something that needs to be fixed. To me that
sounds the same as saying the genes for blonde hair can be "fixed".

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scythe
Blond hair is easy to fix. Hair dye has been around for years. Why shouldn’t
bald people be afforded the same freedom, in an era where we literally fly
through the air on titanium wings just to take vacations?

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max76
It's the term "fix" that I don't like. It assumes the opposite state is
broken.

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scythe
A person with normal hair growth can choose to be bald. Someone with alopecia
cannot choose the reverse. If baldness were to appear only by choice rather
than as a result of low IGF-1 expression in hair follicles, I would imagine it
would be _more_ respectable, not less.

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thebladerunner
Technical aspects aside, this post is in a really bad taste.

Next time you're itching to show off your chops, maybe pick a project that
does not involve airbrushing people somehow deemed unworthy of being
remembered, based on their looks?

During world war II, the Nazis had the laborious task of detecting Jews among
the occupied populations, at scale. Is that also a task worthy of being
automated and then writing a post about it?

