Social Camera: The New Face Recognition Technology

Viewdle's Social Camera Application
(photo taken from sigalonandroid.com)

Too busy to upload photographs from your camera or phone to your computer and onto Facebook?  Wish there was an easier way?  There’s now an application that will do it all for you.  Viewdle’s free Social Camera application, available to Android users, helps users automatically tag their friends in photographs taken with their cell phone cameras, saving time and energy.

Viewdle’s application, launched Wednesday, is unlike any other mobile phone application; it does all of its recognition and sharing on the mobile phone, rather than through a desktop computer.

According to an April 27th article on CBSMoneyWatch.com

Viewdle uses sophisticated, proprietary algorithms to automatically create a 'faceprint' of the captured and saved frames of the person's face you are looking at in the viewfinder. Once that face has been tagged, the faceprint is saved to the phone and the user will not have to tag that person when a new photo of them is snapped -- Viewdle tags and shares it automatically with your friends on Facebook, Flickr, MMS, or email.

In the video below, Jason Mitura of Viewdle demos the Social Camera application.  He explains that the application is run by computer vision libraries that are tracked completely on the mobile device, meaning that the phone can actually see people.  You can do so many different things with it, while building interesting applications based on who’s standing right in front of the camera.     

This is a concept very similar to Facebook's facial recognition launched back in December.  In an article published April 27th on Forbes, Laurent Gil, co-founder and CEO of Viewdle, talks about Facebook's facial recognition launch stating

Auto-tagging can only be done on a desktop or laptop, but not on a mobile device. That’s because Facebook’s visual recognition is working on the server. But because Viewdle can auto-tag straight from the mobile app, it eliminates the tedious process of tagging on the Facebook website.

The Social Camera application
automatically tags your friends
with face recognition.
(photo taken from
wirelessandmobilenews.com)

This seems to be a great application for everyone.  It seems to be fun, as well as time efficient.  But, to me, it also seems to be a little scary.  Any photograph of yourself taken from a camera phone can be put on Facebook at any time if the camera recognizes you.  This could play a role in cyber bullying, a recently discussed topic in class, as well as obscene and embarrassing locker room or restroom photos.  They may be placed online at any time without your consent.

But, if you feel you have the maturity level to use this application, it seems worth a try.  It can definitely save you a lot of time.      

Count Your Calories With Meal Snap



The Meal Snap Application
(photo taken from gadgetoz.com)



Have you ever wanted to be able to count your calories quickly while at a restaurant or keep track of your daily calorie intake?  Several methods cost a lot of time and money; but, there’s now an application that can do it all for you.  The new application, Meal Snap, according to an April 13^th post on Gigaom, The Apple Blog, was released through the Apple iPhone earlier this month.  The new application analyzes food photography captured with your iPhone’s camera, and returns an approximate calorie count for each food item.

Darrell Etherington, the author of the Gigaom blog post states:                                    

Meal Snap, which sells for $2.99, offers the ability to take a photo of food, add a caption and let the system find out how many calories it contains. The app also automatically keeps a daily log of your tracked meals, but there’s no sign-up process, and no real settings to fiddle with, although you can sign in to Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare to share your snapped meals.

The results given back to you are specified in a range and although the information is not exact, it is pretty close.  For example, if you take a photograph of a sliced apple as compared to a whole apple, the results may return slightly different.

In addition to telling you your calorie intake, Meal Snap can also tell you the ingredients in the food you are about to eat.  This function may be very helpful to those who have food allergies.  

Although the application was originally made for dieters, the narrator in the video below states that the main reason people download this application is because of its magical ability to recognize food.  In his tests, the application recognized 9 out of the 10 items he photographed.  Even obscure things such as mashed apple pie were able to be recognized by Meal Snap.    

This application sounds fun; but to me, it seems like different lighting conditions and the contrast of different serving dishes may also be factors in the results.

In an article posted on ZDNet Health, author Denise Amrich, RN studied different types of serving dishes.  She photographed McDonalds Fruit and Maple Oatmeal in the original McDonald’s cup.  She then moved the oatmeal into a plain white bowl.  When receiving the results she states

Meal Snapp Food Recognition and Calorie Count
(photo taken from huffingtonpost.com)

The first McDonald’s oatmeal in the McDonald’s cup was estimated to be 195-293 calories.  That’s not a bad guess!  The nutritional information on the cup actually says that it contains290 calories.

Interestingly enough, the same McDonald’s oatmeal in a white ceramic bowl was estimated to be 250-375 calories.  The app was still right.  290 is definitely in that range.  It’s funny that moving it to a bowl added up to 85 calories.

So the different dishware does affect the results, but not by much.

Meal Snap is a great way to count your calories, entertain your friends, and it’s fun.  I would say that for the entertainment value alone, it is worth the $2.99.

Color, A Twitter For Photos



Color
(photo taken from color.com)



UPDATE: In the video posted below, Color founder Bill Nguyen describes the application as similar to going to a wedding and having several disposable cameras sitting in front of you.  You can now have the ability to do the same thing, except with your iPhone.



The technology that allows you to look at the photographs and videos on other people’s phones is finally here.

According to a March 24^th article on Computerworld.com, the free photo sharing application, Color, was made available last week for iPhone and Android smart phones.  Similar to a photographic version of Twitter, this application allows you to view and share the photographs taken on your phone with anybody within a 150 foot radius. 


In this article, the author interviews Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research, who states: 

Some people like to share what they see, what they're doing, what they like and even what they don't like. And they like to see what other people are doing and liking.

The Color Application
(photo taken from geeky-gadgets.com)

With also having the ability to be posted to Facebook and Twitter, this is a great way to communicate different ideas and photographs to others. The application will also analyze surrounding lighting conditions, GPS, and audio to figure out the location you are at.  
  

Color also creates a great business opportunity by providing a potential way of free advertising.  For example, as someone walks by a restaurant, they could see a photograph come up on their phone of how great the food looks and be persuaded to go inside.  As Ezra Gottheil states in the Computerworld.com article:

If the person is looking at their smartphone instead of your shop window, why not put your picture where he or she is looking?

This is a great idea!

The following video gives the potential of the Color application. 

Although the new Color application poses a great opportunity, it may also create a threat. 

The photo sharing application does not provide any privacy settings.  This means that you are allowing anybody using Color to see your photographs and videos within 150 feet you.

It also does not have a friending function.  Color will determine who your friends are based on who is around you the most.  Once the application has decided who your friends are based on geography and shared interests, it will put you into a social network with that person, allowing you to receive updates more often from them.  This may allow for those who you do not even know to become part of your network. 



Another photo of the Color application.
(photo taken from itunes.apple.com)

 Although the entire point of Color is to make new connections, it could be scary for some people.  Sharing photographs and videos with those you do not know could create a threat.  It could, however, also create new relationships between people. 

In a March 24 article on Switched.com, Color founder Bill Nguyen states:

Social networks are doing pretty amazing things, but to me, social networks still feel solitary, like advanced e-mail, where you write something, post something, and someone responds. That's not like real life at all.

But these social networks have privacy setting, which a large number of users find to be appropriate.  It will be interesting to see how many people will actually use this application within its first few weeks.    

iPad 2: 2 Cameras

 

The New iPad 2
(photo taken from whitezine.com)



UPDATE:  In the video below, several capabilities of the iPad 2’s front and rear facing cameras are given.  Around 2:30 into the video, the builders describe the cameras as being bigger and better than you have ever been able to use before and changes the entire experience of FaceTime and video sharing.  Everything is now clearer and more expressive.

 



The iPad 2's new
FaceTime feature.
(photo taken from
sizlopedia.com)



It still does not have a camera card slot, but the new iPad 2, in stores tomorrow, March 11, has made advances over the previous iPad with two recently added cameras containing several features.



Both the front and back cameras of the iPad 2 are designed for FaceTime video calling, enabling you to make video calls through a Wi-Fi connection to someone who has an iPhone 4, iPod Touch, Mac, or iPad 2 and be there in person, even when you are miles apart.  This feature, much like Skype, is great for long-distance relationships and far away family and friends. 

These cameras also contain the Photo Booth application, allowing you to capture photographs and transform them.  You can twist your face, double your head, or make yourself look like an alien or comic book figure.    

In addition to these capabilities, the rear camera of the iPad 2 also has HD video capabilities, recording up to 30 frames per second as well as a still camera with 5X digital zoom. 

The following video discusses other capabilities of the iPad 2.

Because of its many capabilities, photography businesses are seeing the benefits of using the new iPad 2. 

 



In a PhotoRadar article by Jeff Meyer he states:

The iPad could be the most important piece of all your wedding photography equipment. Take a group shot, pass it around. People will love it. And if they don't, then you know to take the shot again!



This use would help create a sense of ease for the bride, groom, and  photographer.

Meyer also expresses:

With the heaviest model weighing just 1.35 pounds, the iPad 2 is considerably lighter than your laptop. What's more, it's likely quicker to start up and shut down when on the move. Apple claims the iPad 2 also boasts 10 hours of battery time.



The iPad 2's new
Photo Booth application.
(photo taken from
whitezine.com)



The article also confirms that this new generation iPad has the capabilities to be hooked up to a television to use video mirroring, allowing you to turn your television screen into your iPad.  This feature makes it easier to transport your photos and show them to clients on location. 

 



Despite the positives that the new iPad 2 will bring to its consumers, there is a major downfall.  A March 4^th article on CNN Tech confirms that the new iPad 2’s front and rear facing cameras are as basic as you can get and are similar to the iPod Touch camera.  The rear facing camera contains 0.92 megapixels, only about half of the megapixels you need to develop a regular 4x6 photograph, making it almost useless. 

Overall, the iPad 2 seems to have improved considerably when compared to the original iPad.  Although it was never designed to take the place of a regular camera, it can help in those certain situations in which you need it the most.   

For a list of other occupations that may be able to use the new iPad 2 capabilities, please click here.



21 Years of Photoshop

(photo taken from hongkiat.com)

UPDATE:  In the video below both Thomas and John Knoll joke about the different names they had to go through before finally naming their product Photoshop.


According to PC World’s article by Chris Brandrick, Adobe Photoshop celebrated its 21^st anniversary on February 10^th.  Throughout its 21 years, this software has made several improvements to the industry, as well as caused some controversy in the media.

The development of Adobe Photoshop started in 1987 when PhD student, Thomas Knoll, began working on his thesis, detailing the processing of digital images.  His new Apple Mac Plus disappointed him because the monitor could not display black and white images, so he began writing a program to do so. 

Thomas’s brother John Knoll was also working on image processing and after seeing Thomas’s work was impressed.  The brothers decided to form a partnership and soon created a larger and more organized program they named Display.



Adobe's first Photoshop product,
Adobe Photoshop 1.0.
(photo taken from
prodesigntools.com)

 In 1988, the program’s name became ImagePro and its features were growing drastically, more than any other software available at the time.  Barneyscan, a scanner manufacturing company, began bundling the software with their scanner sales.

In September 1988, Adobe took on the ImagePro software and renamed it Photoshop.  Adobe Photoshop 1.0 for Macintosh was finally released to consumers in February 1990, being marketed as a simple tool for everyone to use.

The next Adobe additions included many new features such as CMYK color support in version 2.0, which lead to the adoption by the printing industry, and layers in version 3.0, which persuaded many consumers to try it.  In 1992, version 2.5 was finally released for both Macintosh and Windows.

More features allowed Adobe Photoshop to grow along the way.  With competition that claimed to offer “Photoshop’s power without the price,” the solution was to create a software program that had many of the same functions as Photoshop without the price, Adobe Elements.

The following video is a discussion with some of the masterminds behind the program during Photoshop's 20th Anniversary last year.

For the full video, please click here.  

Throughout the years of Photoshop developments, it has made it easier for artists to create the “perfect person” perception.  But this can also cause a lot of controversy.  A recently published unretouched photograph of Holly Madison, former Playboy Playmate and ex-star of The Girl’s Next Door, in Life and Style Magazine has caused a lot of controversy within the media.  She stated in an Access Hollywood article published March 2, 2011:

This unretouched photograph
of Holly Madison appeared
in Life and Style Magazine.
(photo taken from
realitytea.com)

I have cellulite and had it even when I was at my absolute thinnest. I'm never not going to have cellulite.

She also goes on to say:

I’ve always had a butt, and I want to keep it, cellulite and all. I’m not perfect, but I love my curves.

This is the perspective many women today have trouble with.  They have the perception that photoshopped images have given them and will take extreme measures to get there.  But as Holly Madison states in her article, we should all accept ourselves for who we are and realize that nobody is perfect. 

For a list of other major changes in Adobe’s 12 major releases, please click here.     

Image Manipulation: How Far Is Too Far?

Click here to see how this was accomplished.



How can we believe anything we see anymore?  With the digital technology available to us, we can do almost anything we want with the photographs we take.  With just a few clicks of a mouse and a little bit of time, we can instantly transform a portrait into the ideal person everyone wants to be.

The three people
on the left in this photograph
 appear to be floating in mid air.

With the invention of photography, society learned early on to accept photographs as “real” or “the truth” because the main purpose was to record events more realistically.  But digital manipulation of photography has been around just as long as photography itself, being used largely for bringing family members together in a photograph when the family was not together at the same time in reality.  Early photographers would cut and paste people in photographs together, making them look realistic, a process much different than we use today.

Over the years, the digital manipulation of photographs, mostly used to persuade viewers, tell a story, or enhance and create impact, has taken off.  With the development of the computer and software like Adobe Photoshop, the entire media climate is full of digital manipulation and people are finally beginning to accept that most photographs they see are in some way “fake” or “photoshopped.”

As digital manipulation software grows in its complexity, changes go far beyond color correction, removing red-eye, and whitening teeth.  With the technology we use today, we can make bodies slimmer or taller.  We can also change skin color or swap body parts from different photographs. Nothing is impossible of illegal with these manipulation technologies.

Another great thing that digital manipulation technology allows us to do, like earlier versions, is to add people into photos who were unable to join the photoshoot or take those out who should not be in the photograph, such as those who have broken up or gotten divorced.  We can add those who have passed away into a photograph as well.

This concept of photo manipulation technology may sound great, but it may also cause trouble.



This is the manipulated photograph
 Brian Walski was fired over.



In 2003, Brian Walski, an international-award-winning staff photographer of the Los Angeles Times, was caught combining two photographs of a British soldier, taken just moments apart.  By creating this manipulation of the photograph, he was attempting to improve its impact.  This action cost him his job and several other photojournalists have been fired for the same reason.

Digital manipulation technology has taken the editing of photographs to an extreme.  With the ability to enhance an image by adjusting a person’s body, you can create a perfect, flawless image.  By taking this action, however, there has been an impact on how society views the “perfect person,” leading to problems with anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and depression.  Society has embedded the photo of the ”perfect person” into our minds and many people are trying to achieve it.

Because of the change in digital technology, photo manipulation has taken on a whole new form.  Many people take these words and compare them to beauty.  Other people may compare them to fakeness.  But many people agree on one thing, almost all of the photographs we see today are altered in some way.

To see the 52 Worst Photoshop Mistakes in Magazines, click here. 

Camera vs. Camera

Cell phones.  iPods.  And soon iPads.  These are some of the newest technologies available today containing a built in digital camera.  This allows you to cut from several devices down to just one.  But are these devices beginning to take the place of regular point and shoot or professional cameras? 

The Canon 5D Mark II camera that I own is very large, heavy, and high-tech.  There seems to be way too many mechanics to fit into just the small space that these technologies consume.  It would be nice to just have to carry around one thing for every technology that exists.  Will this someday be the case?       

As Chris Corrandino of the New York Institute of Photography points out…

“Rather than carrying a phone, a camera, and an MP3 player, many of today's consumers are looking for one electronic device that does it all. Manufacturers are taking notice, and adding more capable cameras to their phones. For example, the new Motorola Droid features 5 megapixels of resolution, autofocus, and a flash. And the affordable Sony Ericsson C905A has a built in Sony Cybershot camera. Besides 8 megapixels of resolution, you can adjust the white balance, use image stabilization, and red eye reduction. It even has specific modes for a variety of subjects like sports, macro, night, and portraits.” 

Another great camera phone, winning the 2010 smartphone competition, is the iPhone 4.  This phone has a 5 megapixel camera and a flash that allows it to shoot great in low light situations.  It also has a 3.85mm optical zoom lens and an ISO that can range from 80 to 1000. My camera’s ISO ranges from 100 to 6400, so this is great for a camera phone. 

All these camera phone specs may sound incredible, however, they still do not have the capability that point and shoot or professional cameras have.  They do not have the speed or necessary functions available to users and do not have the usual 12-22 megapixel capabilities that many digital cameras have.  My point and shoot camera has 10.3 megapixels and my professional camera has 21.1 megapixels, which is nowhere near the iPhone 4. 

But there are certain situations in which using a camera phone is easier to use.  Professional cameras are oftentimes prohibited at large events.  This lets camera phones to step up and take their place, allowing people to capture their memories at the event.

In addition to camera phones, iPods contain built in cameras.  The iPod Touch 4 has a built in camera, but hardly compares to that of a digital point and shoot camera found on store shelves.  It only has about 1 megapixel, a 40mm fixed lens, and no flash for low light situations.  The iPad 2, not yet released, is rumored to contain a similar camera.  

iPod Touch 4 (left) vs. iPhone 4 (right)
Click here for more comparisons.

I carry my cell phone and camera with me at all times.  It can get to be a lot to carry around.  If I could purchase a something that has the potential of both of these devices in one, it would make things a lot easier.  However, I do not think that this will happen in the near future if ever.  These devices are small and unable to hold the same amount of parts that normal cameras can hold.  But maybe one day they will find a way.  

The Law of Art

While skimming through a book, have you ever taken a snapshot of a photograph with your phone?  What about the internet?  Have you ever taken a photograph with your phone to show someone else?  Most of us are guilty of this action.  We want to remember the photograph that we saw and we want others to see it.  Why purchase the entire book?  Why purchase every photograph when people can help you chose the best? What about saving a photograph and printing it off somewhere else?  Many of us are also guilty of this.

Due to the nature of photography, people constantly fail to realize that photographs are protected under copyright laws and belong to the photographer or artist.  As the use of digital technology in mobile phones and the internet increases, we find more of these copyright laws being taken for granted. 

When I upload photographs to the internet, I trust clients to share them with friends and family on the site they are uploaded to and to aid in the selection process.  When this is violated, the trust for that client is completely gone.  I have had to change the way I operate my business in many ways and add additional rules due to copyright issues.

Many new digital technologies contain cameras making this issue harder on the industry.  Cell phones and the iPodTouch now contain cameras. The iPad will also be coming out with cameras sometime this year.  As the technology for these devices advance, it makes it easier to capture a photograph and look at it later.     

When I see a photograph that I have taken on somebody’s phone or iPod, as long as my trademark continues to be seen, I have no problem with them putting it on their background or showing their friends; it is free advertising and a great way to get your name out there.  It is not until they actually attempt to print my photographs or try to cut the trademark out that the real problem begins. 

Many people do not realize that this issue is very similar to the illegal download of music or videos.  With the invention of the MP3, people are able to pirate music and videos off of the internet and many companies are taking actions against this.  The same is beginning to be true for photographs.  Photographers and other artists are beginning to take action, but not quite to the extent of the music and video industry.  It is very possible that digital technology will make this issue controversial for now and in the future.