This seems like a nice feature, but I think it's more than that. It's a very easy way to obtain a database of faces useful for face recognition. Algorithms for detecting and recognizing faces are good, but not good enough, and this is a great way for Google to improve their AI algorithms using the data obtained from its users.
Google was very close to acquire Riya, a face recognition service that has expanded into a visual search engine for people and objects. They didn't bought the company because they want to develop an in-house solution. This might be integrated into Picasa to automatically detect persons in your photos and organize them better (like MyHeritage does) and might be the foundation of a new kind of image search engine, that understands more from the pictures.
This technology is really awesome, but I don't know if it is really useful...
ReplyDeleteYou will just try that on launch, and you'll forget it.
I think the cropping process is interesting. The faces are useful too, although there are many databases of faces (like AT&T).
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ReplyDeleteNot Riya, but Neven Vision :) according to the googleblog
I think they read your post, and carried through with it in record time. :)
ReplyDeleteHmm.. who did this first? Riya, flickr and now google!
ReplyDeleteI know that people in Riya have been working on this for a long time now. Don't they have a patent on this or something?
The folks at Riya recently launched Like.com - a visual search engine for look-alike celebrity accessories. I think this is a great way to get the public interested in visual search, and it will help Riya fine-tune their product even more with the amount of beta testing traffic I am sure they will attract!
ReplyDeleteShit confusing
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