What if a computer could predict who's a criminal and who isn't just by scanning their face? It sounds like creepy science fiction from a film like Minority Report, but a pair of researchers in China have been busy testing that exact theory out. Xiaolin Wu and Xi Zhang from China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University published a study called " Automated Inference on Criminality using Face Images ." They fed the faces of 1,856 people (half of which were convicted violent criminals) into a computer and set about analysing them. The photos were all of Chinese men aged between 18 and 55, with no beards, scars or other distinguishing features.