SCIENCE LAB SCHEME : ROYAL LIKENESSES A.I.

WHAT'S in a face ? Quite a bit - when you ask a computer. A.I. wouldn't attach a face to a queen who lost her head.

Computational facial recognition - which captures attributes of facial structure - is used for everything banking to border security.

Researchers have now applied the technology to a small sketch - that may or may not portray an English queen beheaded 490 years ago.

In a new study, scholars focused on the 16th-century sketch, by Hans Holbein the Younger. An inscription in a corner reads '' Anna Boleyn Queen '' . But there are reasons to doubt that it portrays Anna Boleyn, said Karen I. Davies, an author of the study.

Its inscriptions were added long after the sketch was completed. Also, the woman shown is blonde and has a double chin, but Anna Boleyn was described as dark-haired and slender.

The team analyzed some 80 Holbein sketches, and also, a painting known to portray Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth 1.

The facial similarity was more indicative of a grandmother-granddaughter relationship, thus the sketch more likely depicted Anna Boleyn's mother.

!WOW! thanks Katherine Kornei.