James Z. Wang's Research Group

Known Media Reports on the Research Group

Research Reported in the Media

The following is an archive of known news reports of our research work. They are roughly in reverse chronical order.
SPONSOR OF OUR RESEARCH: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 0347148, 0333036, and 0219272. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

ACQUINE: Computational Assessment of Visual Aesthetics





  1. Computer Coaches for Shutter Bugs, Computer Scientists Design Computer Software to Rate Online Photos' Eye-Appeal, Discoveries and Breakthroughs Inside Science, a 90-second segment for TV newscasts, viewed by over 47 million people in the US and over 200 million people internationally, American Institute of Physics, June 2010. (link)

  2. Interview with Jamillah Knowles, BBC Radio 5 Live News, May 19, 2009. (listen, link, view, the entire episode)

  3. Nadia Camera Offers Opinion of Your Terrible Photos, WIRED, July 26, 2010. (link, view)
    Story also on: Communication News (China), CNET, Gizmodo (Australia), Wired Vision (Japan), Pazar Cuccok (Hungary), Khanh Hoa (Vietnam), terra (Brazil), jacktech (Italy), Bankier (Poland), NU (Neitherland), HiComm News (Bulgaria)

  4. When a camera takes a digital artist, OWNI - Digital Journalism, France, January 17, 2011. (view English translation, view French, link )

  5. Beauty can be measured? MSN Technology News, by Ana Candela, November 11, 2010. (link, view, pdf)

  6. Computers With Opinions On Visual Aesthetics, SlashDot, May 15, 2009. (link, view)

  7. Meet the Professor: James Wang, Featured Column Faculty Q&A, StateCollege.com, October 6, 2009. (link, view)

  8. Online System Rates Images by Aesthetic Quality, Communications of the ACM, May 13, 2009. (link)

  9. Online system rates images by aesthetic quality, PhysOrg.com, May 5, 2009. (link, view)
    Story also on: L'Atelier (France), Ferra News (Russia), Chinese News cnbeta (China), Imaging-resource, Tarakash (India), Globo (Brazil).

  10. Beauty in the Eye of the Mouseholder, The Engineer Online, June 6, 2006. (link, view)

  11. New Software 'Teaches' Computers How to Identify Beauty, PhysOrg.com, June 5, 2006. (link, view)

Studying of Artistic Paintings of Vincent van Gogh using Computers

Collaborative consortium with the Van Gogh Museum and other institutions.

Recent Work Featured on PBS NOVA TV, The Associated Press, The Economist (UK), Forbes, and The Philadelphia Inquirer
Our art authentication project, jointly with the Van Gogh Museum, Kröller-Müller Museum, Cornell, Princeton, and Maastrichit Univ., was featured on PBS NOVA ScienceNow TV Program. (watch online). It has also been reported by The Associated Press, Forbes, The Philadelphia Inquirer (pdf) and The Economist, UK, among others. Read the technical publication.






  1. NOVA ScienceNOW TV program, aired in both 2008 and 2009 seasons, on July 2, 2008 and July 9, 2009. (watch, video preview, front page capture, front page capture 2, discussion, discussion, season schedule)

  2. How To Spot A Fake, Forbes, by Stephane Fitch, December 3, 2008. (link, view, front, In Depth, pdf)

  3. Arts and science: Detecting masterpiece from fake, Associated Press, by Genaro C. Armas, August 10, 2008. (link, pdf)
    The story has also been carried by a number of media agencies around the world. Examples: CTV, Canada, MSNBC, The Washington Times, The Economic Times, The Canadian Press.

  4. Computer Enters the Picture, The Philadelphia Inquirer, cover story for the Health and Science section, by Tom Avril, July 21, 2008. (link, scanned pdf)

  5. The Computer Says No, The Economist, UK, September 6, 2008 (in magazine) and August 5, 2008 (online). (link, cover, pdf)

  6. Up Close with van Gogh, The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 6, September 5, 2008. (link, text)

  7. The Van Gogh Project, SIAM News, Newsjournal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 7-8, May 2009. (link, view)

  8. Art forgers: What lies beneath, The Independent, UK, September 3, 2008. (link)

  9. How to Detect Fake Art from Originals, The Economic Times, July 11, 2008. (link, view, page view)

  10. Computers Know Their Art, The Brisbane Times, Australia, by Tom Avril, August 6, 2008. (link, pdf)

  11. Proof is in the Pixels, The Keene Sentinel, New Hampshire, August 8, 2008. (link, pdf)

  12. Van Gogh Trains Forgery Recognition System, Tracing Vincent, August 6, 2008. (link, view)

  13. Quand l'algorithme se fait expert en art, L'Atelier, France, July 25, 2008. (link, pdf)

  14. Technology Detects Fake Works of Art, VNUNet News, UK, July 14, 2008. (link, view)

  15. F for Fake, The Engineer Online, UK, July 8, 2008. (link, view)
    Story also on: ScienceDaily, Houston Chronicle.

  16. Bridging World, Cornell Engineering Magazine, cover story, January 2008. (link, view, pdf)

  17. Computers May Help Identify Phony Art, National Public Radio Science Friday, May 18, 2007. (link, listen, script)

  18. Das Zittern des Fdlschers (Trembling the Counterfeiter), Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Frankfurt, Germany, June 17, 2007. (link to newspaper, view, pdf, translation)

  19. Is That Painting Real? Ask A Mathematician, CBS News, May 15, 2007. (link, view, the Workshop)

  20. Is That Painting Real? Ask A Mathematician, The Christian Science Monitor, May 10, 2007. (link, view, page 1, page 2, the Workshop)

Modeling Emotions in Images

  1. Computers Identify What Makes Abstract Art Move Us, New Scientist, November 16, 2012. (link, pdf)

IMAGINATION: Image-based Captcha Authentication
  1. Machines Still Way Behind Humans in Image Recognition, Communications of the ACM, September 10, 2009. (link)

  2. Machines Still Can't Replicate Human Image Recognition, RedOrbit, September 10, 2009. (link, view)
    Story also on Innovations Report (Germany), Newstrack (India), ScienceDaily, Science Centric, Malysia Sun, Albuquerque Express, Birmingham Star, Daily India, Top News (India), among others.

  3. Building a better spam-blocking CAPTCHA, New approaches may give the CAPTCHA antispam technology a second chance, ComputerWorld, Security, by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, January 23, 2009. (link, view)
    Story also on PCWorld

  4. Building a Better CAPTCHA, SlashDot.org, headline news, January 23, 2009 at 7:04PM. (link, view)

  5. Next-Generation CAPTCHA Exploits the Semantic Gap, SlashDot.org, headline news, April 23, 2008 at 8:03AM. (link, front page view, view)

  6. "Emergent" Images to Outwit Spambots, by Rachel Kremen, MIT Technology Review, January 6, 2010. (link)

  7. Can CAPTCHA be Saved? Computerworld, blog, by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, April 23, 2008 at 4:08PM. (link, view)

  8. Researchers stay step ahead of bots with image-based CAPTCHA, Ars Technica, by Joel Hruska, April 23, 2008 at 9:08PM. (link, view, front page view )

  9. Microsofts CAPTCHA Successfully Broken, ZDNet, by Dancho Danchev, May 31, 2008 at 11:59AM. (link, view)

Tagging of Images over Time


  1. 25 Radical Network Research Projects You Should Know About, NetworkWorld, April 16, 2008. (link, view)

  2. Where Oh Where Art Thou, Digital Image? Discovery News - What the Tech Blog, December 5, 2007. (link, view)

  3. Photo Search System Auto-Tags, Then Learns From Users, Science Daily, October 16, 2007. (link, view, cover)

  4. Smart photo tagging created at Penn State, NetworkWorld, Boston, October 16, 2007. (link, view)

  5. New software makes digital photo searches simpler, NewKerala, India, October 17, 2007. (link, view)
    Story also on DailyIndia, Malaysia Sun, Malaysia

  6. New software advances photo search and management in online systems, The Hindu, October 16, 2007. (link, view)

  7. Photo search and management in online systems, Technology News Daily, New Zealand, October 15, 2007. (link)

  8. Boffins zoom in on digital image search, iTnews, Australia, October 17, 2007. (link, view)
    Story also on Personal Computer World, UK, What PC?, UK, IT Week, UK, CRN, UK, VNUNet, UK, Computing, UK

  9. Software Advances Photo Search, Management, The Post Chronicle, October 16, 2007. (link, view)
    Story also on United Press International, EarthTimes, UK, ImediNews, Georgia

  10. New software advances photo search and management in online systems, PhysOrg, October 15, 2007. (link, view)

ALIPR: Real-time Automatic Annotation of Pictures

  1. Visual Experiments ALIPR, UP Grade Computer Weekly (Russia), May 19, 2010. (link, view English, view)

  2. Automatic Photo Tagging and Visual Image Search, Dr. Dobb's Journal, October 10, 2008. (link, front page view, print view)

  3. Researchers Teach Computers To Recognize Objects In Images, InformationWeek, by Thomas Claburn, October 9, 2008. (link, print view)

  4. Computers 'Taught' To Search For Photos Based On Their Contents, ScienceDaily, October 9, 2008. (link)

  5. Computers will soon search photos on the web based on their contents, TopNews, India, October 10, 2008. The news was carried by dozens of other agencies in India and around the world. (link)

  6. Digital Pics 'Read' by Computer, Discovery News, by Tracy Staedter, a Top Story of November 9, 2006. (link, print view, front screen image, example)

  7. Computers Get the Picture, Scientific American Daily 60-Second World Science, reported by Steve Mirsky, featured science on November 6, 2006. (listen, backup mp3, view, front page view)

  8. Automatic Image Tagging, SlashDot.org headline news, November 2, 2006 at 8:07PM. (link, view, front page view, Chinese version)

  9. Software Learns to Tag Photos, MIT Technology Review, by James Lee, November 9, 2006. (link, Page 1 view, Page 2 view, print view, front page view)

  10. Radio News Broadcast, WPSX Public Radio Station, November 7, 2006. (first time 7:34AM morning news, about one minute) (link, listen)

  11. Software recognizes and describes images in words, Radio Canada, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) News, 2006. (link, view, front page view)

  12. PACS Workstations Pull New Arrows From Quiver, by David L. Weiss, M.D., Diagnostic Imaging PACSWeb, September 1, 2006. (link, view)

  13. Penn State Researchers Create Auto Picture Tagging, Digital Camera Info, November 6, 2006. (link, view, front page view)

  14. Automatically Tag Images Using ALIPR, CIO Central, 2006. (link, view)

  15. Automatic Linguistic Indexing of Pictures, PhotoReview Australia, November 5, 2006. (link, view, front page view)

  16. Automatic Linguistic Indexing of Pictures Real-Time (ALIPR): Software Recognizes And Describes Images In Words, StockPhotoTalk, November 3, 2006. (link, view)

  17. Computers Taught How To Interpret Images, Tech News Daily, November 2, 2006. (link, view)

  18. Wordpress it is then... ALIPR? Barnesdmd.co.uk, November 3, 2006. (link, view)

  19. Researchers demonstrate automatic photo keywording system, Rob Galbraith Digital Photography Insights, November 3, 2006. (link, view)

  20. Researchers teach computers how to name images by 'thinking', PHYSORG.com, November 1, 2006. (link, view)

  21. Researchers Teach Computers How To Name Images By Thinking, LockerGnome Tech News Watch, November 1, 2006. (link, view)

  22. Researchers teach computers how to name images by 'thinking', Innovations Report, November 3, 2006. (link, view)

  23. Intelligent computer describes pictures, The Daily Collegian, November 7, 2006. (link, view)

  24. Computers Naming Images by 'Thinking', CCNews, November 2, 2006. (link, view, front page view)

  25. Researchers teach computers how to name images by 'thinking', 50Connect, U.K., November 3, 2006. (link, view)

  26. Researchers Teach Computers How to Name Images by 'Thinking', ACM TechNews, November 3, 2006. (link, view)

  27. Researchers Teach Computers How To Name Images By 'Thinking', ScienceDaily, November 1, 2006. (link, view)

  28. 'Thinking' computers taught 330 English words to help tag caption less pics, NewKerala, India, November 2, 2006. (link, view)

  29. New software tags images automatically, Beijing Technology News (Bei Jing Ke Ji Bao), November 16, 2006. (link, view)

  30. Penn State researchers say a picture is worth 330 words, Network World, December 4, 2006. (link, cover view, view)

  31. researchers say a picture is worth 330 words, PC World Magazine, Australia, December 4, 2006.

  32. New system eases online image search, IT World, Canada, December 4, 2006.

  33. A picture is worth 330 words, exactly, Digit Magazine, UK, December 5, 2006.

  34. ALIPR Helps People Decide: Hot Or Not? Gizmodo News, November 9, 2006. (link, view)

  35. Automatic Image Tagging, ZDNet, November 2, 2006. (link, view, MobileZDNet)

SIMPLIcity Visual Similarity Search in the Real World, with Airliners.net

  1. Searching by Image Instead of Keywords, Slashdot, May 4, 2005. (link, view)

  2. Content-Based Image Retrieval Finds De Plane! De Plane!, Search Views, May 5, 2005. (link, view)

  3. All About Content Based Image Retrieval, SearchEngineWatch, May 5, 2005. (link, view)

  4. Image Comparison Engines, Google Blogoscoped, May 5, 2005. (link, view)

Image Retrieval and Objectionable Image Filtering

  1. Looking for Good Art, Part 2, Image Retrieval, Searcher, vol. 12, no. 9, 2004. (link) (view)

  2. Talking to the Pictures -- Letting the Computer Sort Your Pictures, Thumbnails (pp. 2), 2003. (link) (view)

  3. Report on Image Research, European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, 2003. (link) (view)

  4. Donner du sens aux images (in French), Fing France, 2002. (link) (view)

  5. New Software Creates Dictionary For Retrieving Images, Penn State News Release, December 2002. (link) (link) (view)

  6. Advanced Techniques for Automatic Web Filtering, National Academies Written Testimony, 2002. (link) (view)

  7. Automatic Linguistic Indexing of Pictures (in Japanese), Internet Watch, 2002. (link) (view)

  8. Introduction and New Software Creates Dictionary for Retrieving Images, Medscape, 2002. (link) (view)

  9. New Software Creates Dictionary for Retrieving Images, Innovations Report, 2002. (link) (view)

  10. New Digital Image Retrieval Approach Reduces Search Time, Improves Accuracy, Penn State News Release, 2001. (link) (view)

  11. New Digital Image Retrieval Approach Reduces Search Time, Improves Accuracy, Science Blog, June 2001. (link) (view)

  12. New digital image retrieval approach reduces search time, improves accuracy, Global Techno Scan, 2001. (link) (view)

  13. Simplicity Eases Image Retrieval, Photonics, September 2001. (link) (view)

  14. Image search sorts by content, TRN Magazine, 2001. (link) (view)

  15. Advanced Techniques for Automatic Web Filtering, National Academies Report, 2002. (link) (view)

  16. Web Image Searches Can Become Faster, More Accurate, UniSci, 2001. (link) (view)

  17. Net Protection Review, SaferInternet Organization, 2002. (link) (view)

  18. New strategy allows computerized search of digital image databases, Diagnostic Imaging, 2001. (link) (view)

  19. SIMPLIcity system, (in Italian), 2002. (link)

  20. List of Demos Website Links, Electrical Engineering, 2002. (link) (view)

  21. Internet Governance (in German), Informatik und Gesellschaft (translation of a Daily Mirror report, 1998. (link) (view) (translation)

  22. Report on WIPE, Reference News (Can Kao Xiao Xi), Xinhua News Agency, 1997. (link) (view)

  23. Report on WIPE, ZDNews, 1997. (link) (view) (translation)

  24. Report on WIPE, DPA (German Press Agency), 1997. (link) (view) (translation) (with followup)

  25. Report on WIPE, DPA (German Press Agency), 1997. (link) (view)

  26. Report on WIPE, Canoe, 1997. (link) (view)

Misc:

  1. Central PA 4th Fest Official Photo, 2005.(link) (view)

  2. Central PA 4th Fest Official Photo, 2004.(link) (view)

  3. Peer-to-peer programs work by direct data requests between software, The Digital Collegian, 2003. (link) (view)

  4. Un-wired, The Digital Collegian, 2003. (link) (view)

  5. A photograph taken by J. Z. Wang is selected for the cover of NSF Frontier.

Any questions or comments? Contact James Wang and Jia Li.