In the realm of IT, the image of Lenna is a well-known and preferred choice for testing image processing techniques. The original image is a photograph of Swedish model Lena Forsén featured in Playboy magazine in 1972, later picked up by Jamie Hutchinson, a professor at the University of Southern California, for research purposes. It gained popularity and became a meme in the pre-internet era, continuously used.
However, the use of the Lenna image, depicting a nude model from Playboy, has faced criticism for objectifying women and potentially affecting the interest of females entering this field. There have even been artistic works like “Losing Lenna” advocating against this issue.
Recently, at an IEEE Computer Society meeting, a resolution was passed to ban the use of the Lenna image in all IEEE papers. Papers utilizing this image will be rejected for publication starting April 1, 2024. IEEE is not the first institution to ban the use of the Lenna image, as Nature magazine had already issued a ban in 2018.
Source: Ars Technica
The original 512×512 Lenna image widely used in image processing is actually a cropped version of the full image.
TLDR: The Lenna image, originally featuring a Playboy model, has been widely used in IT for image processing but is now facing bans due to objectification concerns.
Leave a Comment