While I know it’s not Unix or Linux news, I thought this was pretty interesting. Google has applied for a patent on software that can identify and tag any object(s) in an image uploaded by any internet user.
The tagging software has the potential to scan videos and images and automatically pick out an object within the video or image, tag and index the information. The “Automatic large-scale video recognition” patent, describes the software scanning thousands of images of landmarks from around the world that can be tagged, indexed and categorized using color, movement and features of the object or objects. As an example, any holiday photo snapped of the Golden Gate Bridge, or any other popular world landmark could be tagged as “Golden Gate Bridge” and “San Francisco” and then indexed and categorized with Google’s software.
Google claims that it has plans to implement an “Object names repository”, which will contain approximately 50,000 objects to assist the tagging technology with identifying objects within the image. There is no confirmation yet of how and when the technology will be rolled out by Google, but analysts suggest that Google is looking to include the software in to Android smartphones and possibly also YouTube content. Of course, internet privacy advocates have expressed their concerns, claiming that any such service that makes use of the software should be an ‘opt-in’ service only.
We’re curious about what Unixmen readers think about Google’s new tagging technology. Let us know your own thoughts and post a comment below.
