Good news for the deeply needy: MIT researcher Aditya Khosla has a tool for optimizing response to your images. According to The Verge,

Khosla says his algorithm allows him to predict how many views your photo will get before you even upload it. The algorithm considers social factors such as how many followers a user has, the number of tags on the photo, and the length of the title. It also measures content factors such as texture, color, gradient, and objects present in the photo. (Miniskirts, bright colors, people instead of scenery = good. Plungers = bad. Pink and yellow miniskirts, even better. Green plungers, horrible.) […]

Right now the algorithm is much better when social factors are included, but Khosla hopes to improve it. He also plans to create a tool that can automatically edit your photo to make it more popular.

Interesting, though the idea of robots editing our art makes me think of Dead Poets Society:

Excrement! That’s what I think of Mr. J. Evans Pritchard! We’re not laying pipe! We’re talking about poetry. How can you describe poetry like American Bandstand? “I like Byron, I give him a 42 but I can’t dance to it!”

[Via Margot Neebe]