Google develops palette with 10 skin tones to improve AI systems

Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday unveiled a palette of ten skin tones that it described as a step forward in creating devices and apps that can better serve people.

The company said the new skin tone scale replaces a flawed six-color standard known as the “Fitzpatrick Skin Type”, which has become popular in the tech industry and is used in applications such as smartwatch heart rate sensors, intelligence systems artificial intelligence, including facial recognition, and other mechanisms that may show color bias.

The company partnered with Harvard University sociologist Ellis Monk, who studies skin color discrimination and felt dehumanized by cameras that failed to detect her face and reflect her skin tone.

Monk said the Fitzpatrick scale is great for rating differences between lighter skin tones. But most people are darker, so she wanted a scale that “does a better job for the majority of the population.”

Through Photoshop and other digital art tools, Monk established ten skin tones, a manageable number for people who help train and evaluate artificial intelligence systems. She and Google insiders surveyed nearly 3,000 people across the United States and found that a significant number of them said a ten-point scale suited their skin, as well as a 40-tone scale.

Tulsee Doshi, head of product for Google’s AI team, called Monk’s scale “a good balance.”

Google is already applying scaling to its search. Images related to searches like “bridal makeup” now allow filtering of results based on Monk’s palette. Image searches like “cute babies” now show photos with varying skin tones.

Monk scaling is also being rolled out over Google Photos’ filter options, to ensure the company’s face-matching software isn’t biased.

Still, Doshi said problems can creep into products if companies don’t have enough data on each of the shades, or if the people or tools used to classify others’ skin are biased by differences in lighting or personal perceptions.

Company develops artificial intelligence tool for real-world searches

Google also launched plans on Wednesday to connect the real world with the digital universe of search, maps and other services through advances in artificial intelligence technology.

The company showed off a tool that will allow users, for example, to take videos of wine shelves in a store and search the system to automatically identify those that were produced at specific wineries.

“This is like having a super ‘Ctrl+F’ for the world around you,” said Prabhakar Raghavan, Google’s senior vice president, referring to the keyboard shortcut for document searches. “You can search all over the world, ask questions any way and anywhere.”

Later this year, Google Maps will release an immersive vision for some major cities that combines Street View with aerial imagery “to create a rich digital model of the world,” the company said.