College+of+Liberal+Arts+and+Convergence+Science
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Image Analysis to Automatically Quantify Gender Bias in Movies
Many commercial films worldwide continue to express womanhood in a stereotypical manner, a recent study using image analysis showed. A KAIST research team developed a novel image analysis method for automatically quantifying the degree of gender bias in films.
The ‘Bechdel Test’ has been the most representative and general method of evaluating gender bias in films. This test indicates the degree of gender bias in a film by measuring how active the presence of women is in a film. A film passes the Bechdel Test if the film (1) has at least two female characters, (2) who talk to each other, and (3) their conversation is not related to the male characters.
However, the Bechdel Test has fundamental limitations regarding the accuracy and practicality of the evaluation. Firstly, the Bechdel Test requires considerable human resources, as it is performed subjectively by a person. More importantly, the Bechdel Test analyzes only a single aspect of the film, the dialogues between characters in the script, and provides only a dichotomous result of passing the test, neglecting the fact that a film is a visual art form reflecting multi-layered and complicated gender bias phenomena. It is also difficult to fully represent today’s various discourse on gender bias, which is much more diverse than in 1985 when the Bechdel Test was first presented.
Inspired by these limitations, a KAIST research team led by Professor Byungjoo Lee from the Graduate School of Culture Technology proposed an advanced system that uses computer vision technology to automatically analyzes the visual information of each frame of the film. This allows the system to more accurately and practically evaluate the degree to which female and male characters are discriminatingly depicted in a film in quantitative terms, and further enables the revealing of gender bias that conventional analysis methods could not yet detect.
Professor Lee and his researchers Ji Yoon Jang and Sangyoon Lee analyzed 40 films from Hollywood and South Korea released between 2017 and 2018. They downsampled the films from 24 to 3 frames per second, and used Microsoft’s Face API facial recognition technology and object detection technology YOLO9000 to verify the details of the characters and their surrounding objects in the scenes.
Using the new system, the team computed eight quantitative indices that describe the representation of a particular gender in the films. They are: emotional diversity, spatial staticity, spatial occupancy, temporal occupancy, mean age, intellectual image, emphasis on appearance, and type and frequency of surrounding objects.
Figure 1. System Diagram
Figure 2. 40 Hollywood and Korean Films Analyzed in the Study
According to the emotional diversity index, the depicted women were found to be more prone to expressing passive emotions, such as sadness, fear, and surprise. In contrast, male characters in the same films were more likely to demonstrate active emotions, such as anger and hatred.
Figure 3. Difference in Emotional Diversity between Female and Male Characters
The type and frequency of surrounding objects index revealed that female characters and automobiles were tracked together only 55.7 % as much as that of male characters, while they were more likely to appear with furniture and in a household, with 123.9% probability.
In cases of temporal occupancy and mean age, female characters appeared less frequently in films than males at the rate of 56%, and were on average younger in 79.1% of the cases. These two indices were especially conspicuous in Korean films.
Professor Lee said, “Our research confirmed that many commercial films depict women from a stereotypical perspective. I hope this result promotes public awareness of the importance of taking prudence when filmmakers create characters in films.”
This study was supported by KAIST College of Liberal Arts and Convergence Science as part of the Venture Research Program for Master’s and PhD Students, and will be presented at the 22nd ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) on November 11 to be held in Austin, Texas.
Publication:
Ji Yoon Jang, Sangyoon Lee, and Byungjoo Lee. 2019. Quantification of Gender Representation Bias in Commercial Films based on Image Analysis. In Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 198, 29 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359300
Link to download the full-text paper:
https://files.cargocollective.com/611692/cscw198-jangA--1-.pdf
Profile: Prof. Byungjoo Lee, MD, PhD
byungjoo.lee@kaist.ac.kr
http://kiml.org/
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Culture Technology (CT)
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
https://www.kaist.ac.kr Daejeon 34141, Korea
Profile: Ji Yoon Jang, M.S.
yoone3422@kaist.ac.kr
Interactive Media Lab
Graduate School of Culture Technology (CT)
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
https://www.kaist.ac.kr Daejeon 34141, Korea
Profile: Sangyoon Lee, M.S. Candidate
sl2820@kaist.ac.kr
Interactive Media Lab
Graduate School of Culture Technology (CT)
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
https://www.kaist.ac.kr Daejeon 34141, Korea
(END)
2019.10.17 View 22668 -
Public Lectures on the Korean Language and Alphabet
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences at KAIST will offer public lectures on the Korean language and alphabet, Hangul, from March 22, 2016 to April 26, 2016.
The lectures, which are entitled “The Riddle of Hangul,” will take place on campus in Daejeon.
A total of six lectures will be held on such topics as the origin of Korean, the grammar of ancient Korean in the Chosun Dynasty (1392-1897), and subsequent developments in contemporary Korean.
Professor Jung-Hoon Kim, who is responsible for organizing the public lecture program, said, “The audience will have an interesting opportunity to understand the history of Korean and its mechanism, while reviewing the unique spelling system of Hangul. I hope many people will show up for these wonderful classes.”
For further information and registration, please visit: http://hss.kaist.ac.kr. All lectures, available only in Korean, are free and open to the public.
2016.03.15 View 7425 -
KAIST receives $20 million donation for futures studies
A retired businessman, Moon-Soul Chung, the former chief executive officer of Mirae, Inc., a semiconductor equipment company in Korea, today donated USD 20 million to the Graduate School of Future Strategy at KAIST.
It was Chung's second contribution to KAIST—his first donation of USD 28 million in 2001 supported the construction of the Bio and Brain Engineering building, a major research center on campus where biotechnology and information technology converge.
Established in 2013, the KAIST Graduate School of Future Strategy consists of three interdisciplinary graduate programs on future strategy, intellectual property, and science journalism. The Research Center for Future Strategy is an affiliate of the graduate school. KAIST is the first Korean university that offers an academic program granting a degree in futures studies.
The rapid advancement in science and technology today affects, profoundly and extensively, all corners of global society from education, politics, economy, and environment to resources, sustainability, and inequality. As we live in a highly interconnected, digitalized, and unpredictable world, analyzing the events, trends, patterns, and changes of the past and present, developing foresight, and mapping preferred futures have become more relevant than ever.
KAIST utilizes its strong tech-knowledge base in science and engineering to offer students a high quality education and training in futures thinking, skills, and methodologies to develop foresight and to plan future strategies for international relations, business and industry, national defense, science and technology, and new media. KAIST also anticipates helping government, business, public service, and non-profit organizations identify important issues and develop long-range implementation strategies to prepare for probable and preferred futures.
Moon-Soul Chung (left), the former CEO of Mirae Inc., and President Steve Kang (right), holding together the donation agreement in Seoul, January 10th, 2014
2014.01.13 View 7839 -
KAIST Cultural Festival - the 2nd rocklassic
KAIST Cultural Festival - the 2nd rocklassic
- Unique music festival by KAIST students mixed with creation, performance, and science
- Result of creative classes - All activities from performance planning to strings manufacturing will be carried out by students themselves
- At the outdoor theater in KAIST, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, September 10
Crossover music festival pursuing balanced mixture of Rock and Classic will be held by KAIST students.
KAIST (President Nam-Pyo Suh) will open ‘KAIST Cultural Festival - the 2nd rocKlassic’ at the outdoor theater, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, September 10.
This performance can be considered as a new attempt that provides opportunities of experiencing the vital topic of industry in the 21st century - fusion of culture and technology. Performance planning, arrangement, and playing are all carried out by students themselves, and musical instruments manufactured by students during classes will be used for the performance. This performance is the result of creative classes such as chamber music, strings manufacturing, performance planning, and business management, which have been newly attempted in KAIST since 2002.
In the performance subtitled as ‘Einstein’s Violin’, KAIST-graduated bandoneonist Sangji Ko will play the bandoneon (musical instrument which is composed of rectangular side faces and wrinkled box, and played by pushing buttons) as a special guest, and total 40 players including members of KAIST student music club ‘Adlib’, ‘KAIST orchestra’, and ‘MUSIKA’, which is making active performances outside KAIST, will attend to make the concert the biggest music project of KAIST.
General director Jeongjin Kim (Professor of KAIST Graduate School of Culture and Technology) said, “In order to enjoy the concert with neighborhood, the outdoor theater capable of 3,000 people will be fully opened, and there is no charge for it. I am sure the passion and talent toward music emitting from KAIST students will startle the audience.”
■ Program
<1st stage>
- The song of life - Adlib, KAIST orchestra
- Flying - Adlib, KAIST orchestra
- From between calm and passion - Chulho Kim, KAIST orchestra
- Propose - Yeoseotjul
- As my wish - Yeoseotjul, Adlib
- I lay my love on you - Yeoseotjul
- Rachmaninov/ Rhapsody on Theme of Paganini Op. 43: Var. 18 Piano - Chulho Kim, KAIST orchestra
- Chaser - Adlib
- Walk this way - Adlib
- Girl’s period - Adlib
- Sweep away - Adlib, KAIST orchestra
<2nd stage>
- Beethoven Virus - Adlib, KAIST orchestra
- Simple symphony - KAIST orchestra
- Cinema paradiso - KAIST orchestra
- Piano trio by Mendelssohn - Daehyun Wie (Piano), Wontae Song (Violin), Hongje Chang (Cello)
- Tango Pugata - Sangji Ko (Bandoneonist), etc.
- Vuelvo al sur - Youngsan Lee, etc.
- La Cumparsita - Sangji Ko, etc.
- Libertango - Sangji Ko, etc.
- Dramatic Funk - Wontae Song, Adlib
- Cavalleria rusticana intermezzo - Sangji Ko, KAIST orchestra
- Hurricane 2000 - Adlib, KAIST orchestra, Yeoseotjul
2006.09.11 View 14786