Civil War Twin: Exploring Ethical Challenges in Designing an Educational Face Recognition Application

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dc.contributor.authorKusuma, Manishaen
dc.contributor.committeechairLuther, Kurten
dc.contributor.committeememberTatar, Deborah Gailen
dc.contributor.committeememberJohnson, Sylvester A.en
dc.contributor.departmentComputer Scienceen
dc.date.accessioned2022-01-07T09:00:25Zen
dc.date.available2022-01-07T09:00:25Zen
dc.date.issued2022-01-06en
dc.description.abstractFacial recognition systems pose numerous ethical challenges around privacy, racial and gender bias, and accuracy, yet little guidance is available for designers and developers. We explore solutions to these challenges in a four-phase design process to create Civil War Twin (CWT), an educational web-based application where users can discover their lookalikes from the American Civil War era (1861-65) while learning more about facial recognition and history. Through this design process, we synthesize industry guidelines, consult with scholars of history, gender, and race, evaluate CWT in feedback sessions with diverse prospective users, and conduct a usability study with crowd workers. We iteratively formulate design goals to incorporate transparency, inclusivity, speculative design, and empathy into our application. We found that users' perceived learning about the strengths and limitations of facial recognition and Civil War history improved after using CWT, and that our design successfully met users' ethical standards. We also discuss how our ethical design process can be applied to future facial recognition applications.en
dc.description.abstractgeneralFacial recognition systems, such as those used in cities, smartphone application and airports, pose numerous ethical challenges around privacy, racial and gender bias, and accuracy. Little guidance is available for designers and developers to create ethical facial recognition systems. We explore solutions to these ethical challenges of creating facial recognition systems in a four-phase design process to create Civil War Twin (CWT), an educational web-based application where users can discover their lookalikes from the American Civil War era (1861-65) while learning more about facial recognition and history. CWT allows users to upload a selfie, select search preferences (e.g., military service, gender, ethnicity), and use facial recognition to discover their "Civil War twins" (i.e., photographs of people from the American Civil War era who look like them). Through this design process, we synthesize industry guidelines, consult with scholars of history, gender, and race, evaluate CWT in feedback sessions with diverse prospective users, and conduct a usability study. We iteratively formulate design goals to incorporate transparency, inclusivity, critical thinking, and empathy into our application. We found that users' perceived learning about the strengths and limitations of facial recognition and Civil War history improved after using CWT, and that our design successfully met users' ethical standards. We also discuss how our ethical design process can be applied to future facial recognition applications.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:33714en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/107443en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectHuman-AI Interactionen
dc.subjectFacial Recognitionen
dc.subjectDigital Historyen
dc.subjectEthical Designen
dc.titleCivil War Twin: Exploring Ethical Challenges in Designing an Educational Face Recognition Applicationen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineComputer Science and Applicationsen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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