[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #310: Getting the picture

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4Cast #310: Getting the picture
November 28th, 2012

Librarians know about metadata. So do search engines. Those words that 
describe something are often critical to being able to find it. 
Searching a library catalog for a specific title (part of the metadata) 
works very well, as does searching for things on the Internet that have 
clear and accurate descriptions. But we've all experienced the library 
patron who says, "I don't remember the title, but it was a big, red book 
with a green leaf on the cover," or some similarly unhelpful 
description. Like many people, they have good visual memory of what the 
book looks like, even if they can't remember the words on the cover. 
Search engines and other applications have the same problem when trying 
to find a poorly described image or video on the Internet, but computer 
techies are working hard to find a solution.

  * Seeking a better way to find web images
    <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/science/for-web-images-creating-new-technology-to-seek-and-find.html>
    (New York Times/John Markoff) "Now, along with computer scientists
    from Princeton, Dr. Li, 36, has built the world's largest visual
    database in an effort to mimic the human vision system. With more
    than 14 million labeled objects, from obsidian to orangutans to
    ocelots, the database has because a vital resource for computer
    vision researchers. The labels were created by humans. But now
    machines can learn from the vast database to recognize similar,
    unlabeled objects, making possible a striking increase in
    recognition accuracy."
  * The midnight epiphany that changed Like.com from an over-hyped
    failure to a $100 million acquisition
    <http://www.fastcompany.com/3002412/midnight-epiphany-changed-likecom-over-hyped-failure-100-million-acquisition>
    (Fast Company/Sindya N. Bhano) "This second iteration of the Riya's
    technology allowed users to find an image, say of a strappy red
    shoe, and request Like.com to do a 'Likeness search' to find similar
    items. Users could find variations of products in different colors,
    shop for clothing similar to what celebrities were wearing, and
    upload images of their favorite items, then scour the web for
    similar items."
  * gazeMetrix using image recognition tech to find branded Instagram
    photos
    <http://betakit.com/2012/11/05/gazemetrix-using-image-recognition-tech-to-find-branded-instagram-photos>
    (BetaKit/Humayun Khan) "The company's technology uses an algorithm
    that breaks down the unique characteristics of a brand's logo,
    everything from the corners, shapes, lines, shadows, and colors, to
    create a brand signature. From there each photo is processed using
    what Singh termed 'fuzzy matching,' which means that even if the
    logo in the image is only partially showing, is on a wrinkled
    t-shirt or any piece of clothing or anywhere else, it will still
    pick it up and match it to the brand. What brands can then do is
    aggregate all the images containing their logo and eventually will
    be able to interact with those who uploaded the photos to boost
    brand engagement."
  * DARPA seeks breakthroughs in computer vision
    <http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4370129/DARPA-foresees-breakthroughs-in-computer-vision>
    (EE Times/Rick Merritt) "The Mind's Eye program aims to develop
    breakthrough algorithms for automatically recognizing and describing
    human activities. Donlon showed small steps forward-and a few
    bloopers-from his first 18 months of work on the three-year effort.
    For example, efforts of a dozen systems failed to recognize a
    running dog; one described a collision between two shopping carts as
    'the car left.' In particular, current algorithms have difficulty
    detecting forearm motions that are key to activities of high
    interest such as giving and taking."

*/Images fact:/*

If a picture is worth a thousand words, there's an incredible amount of 
non-textual information on the Internet. Five million images a day 
<http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-stats-2012_b30651> 
are uploaded to Instagram alone.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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