Photo by Hunter Wilson/Daily News Cyndia Tarrence (from left) helps Nicole Crothers navigate the Human Race Machine on Tuesday as Gary Cassirby watches at Bowling Green Technical College. The machine lets the user quickly see the differences - and the similarities - between themselves and an alter ego of another race.

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A booth-like machine sits in the corner of the conference room in building F at Bowling Green Technical College.

Crowded around the machine, classes and faculty watch as images of students and college personnel - one by one - electronically morph, allowing them a glimpse of what they would look like in different skin. Using what is known as The Human Race Machine, people saw themselves as six different races, and could also get a glimpse of how they would look in 25 years.

“It was cool seeing how different I would look as a different ethnicity,” said Wes Keown, 19, a student at Bowling Green Tech. “Some of the pictures were a little distorted, but some had a drastic change.”

Although Keown said the thought of what he'd look like as a different race never crossed his mind, he was compelled to come out once he saw flyers touting the machine.

“Even if I didn't have to come because of class, I would have,” he said. “Why? Curiosity, I guess.”

The Human Race Machine captures a person's image with a camera while he or she sits in front of the machine. After capturing the image, and hitting certain points with the joystick - such as the outside and inside corners of the eyes, the nose and the middle of the chin - a person can see themselves as white, black, Indian, Middle Eastern, Asian and Hispanic.

“The main goal is to bring more diversity to this campus,” said Eugenia Scott, diversity coordinator and instructor at the college. “We live in a multicultural world, especially here in Bowling Green.”

The machine brings with it a multicultural awareness that people are not that different, Scott said. Scientific evidence has proven that our DNA is 99.97 percent identical, she said.

“So anybody's DNA could be a match,” she said. “Like mine could match (Wes's) more so than mine would match another black person.”

In addition to seeing oneself as six different ethnicities and how one would age, a person could see facial disorders. There are also functions allowing two people's images to be blended to see what their offspring would look like. In conjunction with the machine, the video, “RACE: The Power of an Illusion” - an award-winning PBS documentary about race in society, science and history - aired while students made their way to the machine.

Scott said when she got to the technical college, having the machine - available through Wolfman Productions, a Connecticut-based company - was already in the works thanks to Cindy Gaffney, the technical college librarian and an instructor.

“Part of my job is to expand programming for students, and I became aware of this through an Internet search,” Gaffney said. “My interest was piqued by the cultural awareness this machine brought. I thought it would be exciting for students to experience diversity on a personal level.”

Reception to the machine has been positive, she said. Those who've used it found it to be a “wonderful opportunity” to see themselves as a different race.

“Being another race is something people often might think about, but is difficult to visualize,” she said. The strength of this machine is that it gives instant feedback on how one would or wouldn't change if one was a different ethnicity.

“We live in a diverse community and this gives students the opportunity to appreciate that diversity,” Gaffney said.

“I thought it was pretty neat. I don't think I ever thought of what I'd look like before, but it was different to see my features on a different face,” said Catherine Walker, a student. “I was surprised that I even looked different as a black person.”

Walker said she did notice that as people chose to look at themselves in different ethnicities, black was generally their last pick - which she said proved “the darker the skin, the less popular the race.”

“Too bad the machine doesn't have a feel function, so people could feel what it's like to be that ethnicity,” she said.

The Human Race machine is open to the public. The machine will sit in the F building until Sunday. Scott said Allen County Schools and Warren County's Greenwood High School are set to visit the machine Thursday. Saturday and Sunday are community days when it is open to the public.

Scott said the hope is that people will use the experience to put aside old thoughts of race. It's hoped, Keown said, that the machine will open people's eyes to the fact that people aren't all that different.

“America is often looked at as the melting pot, but I don't see it that way because I never melted,” she said. “Instead I refer to us as a lovely stew. We have beef and carrots and broccoli and onions. We have a broth.”