The real Santa's face: ID software sorts Father Christmas from his stand-ins

Scientists have created a Santa-detection machine and used it to prove what children have been telling adults for generations – that Santa has a unique face which clearly distinguishes him from other elderly bearded men. Previous research has suggested that children as young as three can identify Santa Claus based on his distinctive appearance. "Santa Claus or Father Christmas is obviously a very recognisable person, but we wondered whether this is because of his clothing, his beard or his face?" said Dr Thomas Wright, a clinical geneticist at the University of Manchester, who led the research. "Until now no one has ever systematically and scientifically interrogated the modern face of Father Christmas." To investigate, Wright and his colleagues trained a deep-learning facial-recognition algorithm – similar to the facial ID software used to unlock smartphones or identify people in digital photo libraries – on multiple images of Santa gathered from the internet.