by Mark Ollig
Does hearing all the bells and whistles about ingenious
gadgets and technologies promising to make our lives a bit more enjoyable and
productive catch your attention?
Of course, yours truly is usually quick to embrace
these new, promising technological revolutions even when they are in the
development stage.
Six years ago, I wrote a column titled “Cell phones may
soon be your tourist guide.”
In it, I described a proposed new cellphone software
application which would provide instant information on what you saw by taking
its picture.
The picture would be transmitted from your cellphone to
a central computer system, which would interface to databases located on the
Internet.
These databases would retrieve information collected
about the picture.
This information would be transmitted back to your
cellphone and displayed in real-time.
The technology would be used to identify buildings,
scenery, plants, and even animals.
It’s six years later, and I have not read anything new
from SuperWise Technologies AG, located in Wolfratshausen, Germany, about their
concept.
It was five years ago, when yours truly wrote a column
about a similar technology actually being used called Google Goggles.
In this column, I talked about how the Google Goggles
application “takes the picture from our cell phone and sends it to the web, where
a search for information about it is performed. The information is then
returned to us in real-time.”
Google Goggles can be used to identify pictures, such
as landmarks, artwork, bar and quick response codes, and a few others. It is
currently being used in today’s smartphones.
For more information about installing Google Goggles,
visit http://tinyurl.com/bytes-goggles1.
I did note on Google’s website, that Goggles is not
very good for identifying pictures taken of animals.
This is where I jump to 2014, and reveal in this
column, the latest object recognition technology which appears to be very good
at identifying animals.
This new machine learning, artificial intelligence
computing technology, is named Project Adam.
Yes, indeed, our old friends at Microsoft Research are
the ones developing this new artificial object identification intelligence.
According to Microsoft, the objective of Project Adam
“is to enable software to visually recognize any object.”
Microsoft’s current artificially intelligent virtual
personal assistant, Cortana, was integrated with Project Adam’s technology.
Cortana is to Microsoft’s Windows Phone, what Siri is
to Apple’s iPhone.
Cortana, by the way, is also the name of the artificial
intelligence character from Microsoft Studios Halo video game.
Project Adam was shown during last week’s annual
Microsoft Research Faculty Summit in Redmond, WA.
The demonstration of Project Adam’s capabilities was
given on stage before a live audience, using three different breeds of dogs.
Johnson Apacible, Project Adam researcher, aimed his
smartphone and took a picture of Cowboy, which was the name of a Dalmatian
sitting on the stage.
“Cortana, what dog breed is this?” asked Apacible into
the smartphone.
On the smartphone’s display screen, the word
“Dalmatian” appeared.
Apacible then pointed his smartphone at another dog
(without taking a picture) and asked, “Cortana, what kind of dog is this?”
“Could you take a picture for me?” Cortana’s voice over
the smartphone’s speaker asked.
Laughter could be heard from the people in the
audience.
Apacible pointed the smartphone’s camera to the dog
named Millie, and snapped a picture.
Project Adam’s technology came through again by
correctly identifying the particular dog breed, with Cortana saying, “I believe
this is a Rhodesian Ridgeback.
The audience showed its appreciation with their
applause.
The last breed of dog on stage, an Australian Cobberdog
named Ned, was also correctly identified by Cortana.
Apacible wanted the audience to know Project Adam’s
technology could tell the difference between a dog and a person, and so he
directed the smartphone’s camera at Harry Shum, Microsoft’s executive vice
president of Technology and Research.
“I believe this is not a dog,” Cortana correctly
stated.
The human brain uses trillions of its neural pathway
connections in order to identify objects; Project Adam uses 2 billion in its
artificial neural network.
Eventually, it is hoped, this research will also allow
one to take a smartphone picture of what you are eating, and instantly obtain
its nutritional value.
This technology may someday lead to being able to take
a picture of a rash, or other unusual skin condition, and receive an accurate
medical diagnosis.
Imagine you’re camping out in the woods and come across
some unfamiliar plants; by taking their picture and having it analyzed, you
would be able to determine which ones are edible and which are poisonous.
Indeed, Project Adam has the possibility of developing
into a very promising new technology.
A short video of Cortana identifying breeds of dogs can
be seen at http://tinyurl.com/bytes-adam.
The 2014 Microsoft Research Faculty Summit webpage is
at http://tinyurl.com/bytes-Summit.
