Face Swapping Still Not Pretty

Not since John Travolta and Nicolas Cage swapped mugs in the 1997 non-hit Face/Off, have I been so intrigued/disturbed by the prospect of changing faces. Researchers at Columbia University have developed a system capable of quickly replacing and/or obscuring faces in photographs with new composite or synthetically generated images. Unlike our technology at 3VR and that at Google, which only blurs faces, this technology actually changes them...with mixed results.

Here is an example:

The authors see several applications to this technology from protecting privacy in public images to Hollywood special effects. But, as you can see above, the researchers' favorite application seems to focus on making famous faces less attractive.