Image Search and, of Course, Google
June 13, 2013
Many years ago I lectured in Japan. On that visit, I saw a demonstration of a photo recognition system. Click on a cow and the system would return other four legged animals —- most of the time. Some years later I was asked to review facial recognition systems after a notable misfire in a major city. Since then, my team and I check out the systems which become known to us.
Progress is being made. That’s encouraging. However, a number of challenges have to be resolved. These range from false positives to context failures. In the case of a false positive, the person or thing in the picture is not the person or thing one sought. In the case of context failure, the cow painted on the side of a truck is not the same as a cow standing in a field with many other cows clumped around.
Software is bumping up against computational boundaries. The methods available have to be optimized to run in available resources. When there are bigger and faster systems, then fancier math can be used. Today’s innovations boil down, in my opinion, to clever manipulations of well known systems and methods. The reason many software systems perform in a similar manner is that these systems share many procedures. Innovation is often optimization and packaging, not a leap frog to more sophisticated numerical procedures. Trimming, chopping down, and streamlining via predictive methods are advancing the ball down the field.
I read with interest “Improving Photo Search: A Step across the Semantic Gap.” Google has rolled out enhanced photo search. The system works better than other systems. As Google phrases it:
We built and trained models similar to those from the winning team using software infrastructure for training large-scale neural networks developed at Google in a group started by Jeff Dean and Andrew Ng. When we evaluated these models, we were impressed; on our test set we saw double the average precision when compared to other approaches we had tried. We knew we had found what we needed to make photo searching easier for people using Google. We acquired the rights to the technology and went full speed ahead adapting it to run at large scale on Google’s computers. We took cutting edge research straight out of an academic research lab and launched it, in just a little over six months. You can try it out at photos.google.com. Why the success now? What is new? Some things are unchanged: we still use convolutional neural networks — originally developed in the late 1990s by Professor Yann LeCun in the context of software for reading handwritten letters and digits. What is different is that both computers and algorithms have improved significantly. First, bigger and faster computers have made it feasible to train larger neural networks with much larger data. Ten years ago, running neural networks of this complexity would have been a momentous task even on a single image — now we are able to run them on billions of images. Second, new training techniques have made it possible to train the large deep neural networks necessary for successful image recognition.
The use of “semantics” is also noteworthy. As I wrote in my analysis of Google Voice for a large investment bank, “Google has an advantage because it has data others do not have.” When it comes to predictive methods and certain types of semantics, the Google data sets give it an advantage over some rivals.
What applied to Google Voice applies to Google photo search. Google is able to tap its data to make educated guesses about images. The semantics and the infrastructure have a turbo boosting effect on Google.
The understatement in the Google message should not be taken at face value. The Google is increasing its lead over its rivals and preparing to move into completely new areas of revenue generation. Images? A step but an important one.
Stephen E Arnold, June 13, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
Google Announces Answer Converse: Anticipate Features Ready in the Near Future
June 13, 2013
The article titled Google Overhauling Flagship Search With “Answer, Converse, Anticipate” on Ars Technica discusses the new features Google announced at its Keynote on March 15, 2013. Answer, Converse, Anticipate are the three sections that encapsulate the new strategy. Answer involves Google’s Knowledge Graph, which has been made to understand “real-world entities” instead of just doing a keyword search. Converse uses Google Now to enable conversational searches with Chrome. Anticipation is an expanded version of Google Now, which the article explains was demoed by Joanna Wright, Google VP.
“Using a development build of Chrome, she called up the new search function with a simple “OK, Google”…and asked about interesting things to do in Santa Cruz. She then asked for details about the Santa Cruz boardwalk, which was listed in the results. After a key question (“OK, Google, how far is it from here?”), Google pinpointed her current location at Moscone and told her the boardwalk was 1 hour and 21 minutes away.”
The ability to understand context would mean this technology outsmarts even Siri. Of course it is not yet ready for release, but Google promised it would be available in the near future. The article does not mention good old boolean, date sorting, and relevance with a nod to precision and recall.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Changed Field of Journalism Faces Ethical Quandaries of Digital Communication
June 13, 2013
The article on BuzzFeed titled The Hidden Cost of Instant Reporting compares the ease with which present-day reporters are able to commit ethically questionable actions to their predecessors. Technology has enabled reporters to remove much of the risk and all of the trouble from ethics breaches. The article explains,
“Wikileaks, and Wikileaks-style data dumps, present scores of journalists (and normal citizens!) with ethical decisions that previously would have been rare and, for the most part, limited to those who actively sought them out — career muckrakers or journalists approached directly by whistle-blowers… And it’s hard to imagine Matthew Keys, accused of sharing Tribune Company log-in information with hackers and now possibly facing jail time, letting vandals into the L.A. Times headquarters with an old keycard.”
Plagiarism even has also been transformed into the simplest matter of copy and paste. It is easier to do, and easier to get caught, but that has not changed the way society views it. Are we holding reporters to the same standards that we used to? The article suggests that the effortlessness of cheating can certainly make it more appealing and make it feel less prohibited. The article points to the “15 seconds” taken on Wikipedia by the student who hacked Sarah Palin’s email account. Where will we draw the line?
Chelsea Kerwin, June 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
CNet Rains on Google Glass Parade with Report of Low Interest Among American Consumers
June 13, 2013
On CNet on May 15, 2013, an article appeared titled 90 Percent of Americans Won’t Wear Google Glass, Survey Says. It reports that most Americans are not only uninterested in buying Google Glass, (especially at the price of $1500) but that they have strong feelings against the new product. The reason for this is explained in the article,
“People seem concerned that they will cease to be people. Or, as Joseph Farrell, EVP of operations for Bite chewed it to Mashable: “At best, they see a Glass user as someone who prioritizes information access over a personal connection with others… At worst, they fear social sleights of hand: researching topics, recording video, or Googling a person in mid-conversation. Overall, what Glass offers is a combination of high social rejection with features the average person simply doesn’t value over their current smartphone.”
The article suggests that part of the problem is that Google tends to market to its own employees, who do in fact probably value information access over everything else. This news must have come as shock to Google, which has been happily accepting praise over its innovation for some time. But if the numbers from Bite Interactive are correct, they will certainly dampen Google’s spirits. They may have overestimated the willingness of the American people to change.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
LucidWorks Advances Open Source Search
June 13, 2013
LucidWorks has always been a company that strongly believes in investing in the open source community. After all, their value-added software solutions are built on top of leading open source components. It makes sense. But it is also a passion and a commitment from top-level LucidWorks executives. The press release, “LucidWorks Advances Open Source Search at Worldwide Events,” expands on this idea.
It begins:
“LucidWorks, the company transforming the way people access information, today announced a number of speaking appearances and product demonstrations taking place throughout June, 2013. As data types and demands become more complex, companies of all sizes increasingly rely on search-enabled applications to sharpen their competitive edge with data-driven insights. LucidWorks’ experts will speak at online and offline events, share best practices and demonstrate product use cases in a continued effort to meet growing demand worldwide for knowledge about Lucene/Solr open source search.”
The article goes on to list the commitments that LucidWorks has made this summer including big events like Berlin Buzzwords and DataStax Cassandra Summit. CEO Paul Doscher wants developers to understand that LucidWorks builds on the most active open source search community, meaning developers who go with LucidWorks can know that their applications will stand the test of time. Check out the schedule and head out to see LucidWorks at an event in your area.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Quote to Note: Understanding and Content
June 12, 2013
I read “How a Low Level Insider Could Steal” in the USA Today. Here’s the phrase I circled:
We cannot defend what we don not undertand.
If accurate, does this statement apply to Big Data, whatever that is? If one does not know, how does one search for information?
Stephen E Arnold, June 12, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
Google Glass Could Help Healthcare
June 12, 2013
Healthcare technology always has new ideas and the biggest change in recent years is the electronic medical record. Business Insider tell us that Google may outdo the EMR with its new glasses in, “Marc Andreessen Describes How Google Glass Will Revolutionize Healthcare.” Marc Andresseen sees Google as a magical device that can augment reality. He is so sure of new technology that he is ready to fund new startups and some of them will probably in healthcare. He points to a hypothetical situation:
“Think of a doctors ‘dealing with wounded patients and right there in their field of vision, if they’re trying to do any kind of procedure, they’ll have step-by-step instructions walking them through it. Don’t have to call anyone, it’s just there. That kind of thing, where we can view the Internet overlaid on the real world is transformative in a lot of different areas,’ he said.”
A visual step-by-step guide for surgery, but why stop there? Why not guides for everything in life, but then that removes the human element, which in turn will harm the services part of the economy, put us in a deeper recession, etc. Google Glass will have its place, but do not forget who serves whom.
Whitney Grace, June 12, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Not Safe For Work: How to Avoid Getting Caught Creeping Online
June 12, 2013
The article How to Navigate the Internet At Work on Daily Infographic explains the acronym NSFW (Not Safe For Work). You might have seen those letters in the past, they are used to caution against risqué links to websites and images that you might prefer to not be caught looking at (at work, or in public). With a handy dandy infographic, the article explains the circles of NSFW, like the rings of hell in Dante’s Inferno. Pornography, of course, sits at the center, as the least possible NSFW material. The article explains its logic from there,
“It can be a slippery slope of discretion as to what is safe. This infographic aims to alleviate that confusion. The center represents the heart of NSFW…pornography. Moving outward from the center the NSFW-ness declines with each ring. Outside the circle you have the IRS website and Propublica (a news source). Seemingly a little too ‘SFW’? Not too sure; but the rest of the infographic has a nice gradient from the boring to the time-suckers to the WTF kind of websites. “
Have another browser tab ready’ for quickly switching away from Youtube or tumblr is an example of the jocular circle titles. But what we still have questions. Will this type of search behavior have the desired effect? Will using these methods trigger scrutiny? We don’t know, and and the article is not telling us.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 12, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Government Opens Information Highway
June 12, 2013
The U.S. Government is trying to improve the American dream by making sure that its citizens have access to some of the government’s arsenal of information. According to the Whitehouse article “Executive Order — Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information” the U.S. Government is putting their plan into action.
“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. General Principles. Openness in government strengthens our democracy, promotes the delivery of efficient and effective services to the public, and contributes to economic growth. As one vital benefit of open government, making information resources easy to find, accessible, and usable can fuel entrepreneurship, innovation, and scientific discovery that improves Americans’ lives and contributes significantly to job creation.”
The U.S. Government already has already made some information readily available such as weather data from the Global Position System. Thanks to this we can predict weather patterns, issue warnings and use location based applications. Other data resources such as health, medicine, education, public safety and other areas have experienced growth thanks to the free machine-readable information data posted on Data.gov. The government wants to continue to promote both job and economic growth so they have devised a plan to ensure that not only data is released but that it is made easily accessible to the public. In the world where we find much of our information out by clinging to the news or online sources hoping we can catch a glimpse into the world of the U.S. Government it’s refreshing for them to acknowledge our need for information and give us something to grow on and really get us going.
April Holmes, June 12, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Liferay Recognizes Prodyna
June 12, 2013
Liferay is known as an international provider of an enterprise-class open source portal. The company does a lot to promote the idea and technology of open source within the technology community. Recently, they recognized another company, Prodyna, for their activity in the European market. Read the full report from PR Web in, “Liferay Recognizes Prodyna AG as a Platinum Partner in Germany.”
The article begins:
“Liferay, Inc., provider of the world’s leading enterprise-class, open source portal, announced today that PRODYNA AG has achieved Platinum Partner status. The company is active across the entire European market and specializes in design and implementation of custom software solutions for enterprises.”
The work that Liferay does is important, but some organizations need more than just a portal, they need an all-encompassing solution. For those organizations, a solution like LucidWorks is more feasible. LucidWorks offers LucidWorks Search and LucidWorks Big Data, depending on the needs of the organization. Most importantly, like Liferay, LucidWorks is built on open source components, in their case, Apache Lucene Solr. Another component that is very important for enterprise managers is their award-winning support and services, which ensures that users only have one unified place to go for expert solutions to their enterprise problems.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 12, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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