Evaluating the effectiveness of pixelation and blurring in masking the identity of familiar faces

Authors

Karen Lander
Vicki Bruce
Harold C. Hill, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

19442

Publication Details

Lander, K, Bruce, V and Hill, HC, Evaluating the effectiveness of pixelation and blurring in masking the identity of familiar faces, Applied Cognitive Psychology, 15(1), 2001, p 101-116.

Abstract

Two experiments are reported that assess how well the identity of highly familiar (famous) faces can be masked from short naturalistic television clips. Recognition of identity was made more difficult by either pixelating (Experiment 1) or blurring (Experiment 2) the viewed face. Participants were asked to identify faces from both moving and static clips. Results indicated that participants were still able to recognize some of the viewed faces, despite these image degradations. In addition, moving images of faces were recognized better than static ones. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.