MIT Algorithm Ranks Most Memorable Game of Thrones Characters

Do you remember all the characters of Game of Thrones? Yes? Ok…just take a moment and think about anyone of these. Whom did you think of? Well, what you just did has been taught to a computer by the smart people at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has made an algorithm that measures how memorable an image is. To do this they have fed pictures of characters from HBO’s Game of Thrones into their new algorithm to tell memorability of a character.

The characters were assigned a score on a scale of 0-10. Take a look at this scientific result for the most visually memorable Game of Thrones characters:

Daenerys Targaryen: 9.42
Margaery Tyrell: 9.07
Tywin Lannister: 8.81
Jaime Lannister / Cersei Lannister / Bronn: 8.78
Sansa Stark: 8.7
Jon Snow / Ned Stark: 8.61
Gregor Clegane: 8.22
Tyrion Lannister: 8.15
Joffrey Baratheon: 7.25

The MIT research team has created world’s largest data-set of memorable pictures consisting more than 60,000 pictures with each of them ranked according to their memorability score.

So how does this algorithm ranks the pictures based on their memorability. CSAIL PhD scholar Aditya Khosla – who helped to program the code – says that memorable images isn’t an experience that is personal and differs from person to person.

Aditya says: As humans, we tend to remember and forget the same pictures and faces as each other which suggests that memorable images have features that automatically make them easier to remember.”

Geek writes that the photo memorability algorithm of MIT is an example of deep learning as the computer uses two data sets to learn how an image is memorable to human beings. To become better at this, the computer needs more data.

Well, enough about Game of Thrones and how memorable the characters of Game of Thrones are. MIT has made this algorithm public as a small tool that lets you check your picture for memorability. Here’s a picture of mine at a pizza place couple of months and the results are pretty “memorable.” :DTry this cool tool here and post your memorability below in comments. Just to let you know, our editors’ pictures have scored fairly well on this scale and now it’s your turn. :D