Browser plug-in performs searches based on facial recognition
By George Gardner
We’ve been patiently waiting since last December when the Swedish company, Polar Rose, first announced an exciting plug-in for Firefox and Internet Explorer that will allow its users to discover “who’s in a picture” on any public photo using facial recognition technology. After a few months of silence and several people asking for an update, Polar Rose announced today that they are getting ready to release the beta version of their much anticipated plug-in to the public.
“In short, we’ve spent the dark winter months of Scandinavia crouched over our keyboards and screens getting ready to go from private to public beta, a process which admittedly has taken longer than anticipated,” said Mikkel Thagaard, Vice President of Business Development at Polar Rose on the company’s blog. “However, every unexpected turn has enriched us as a company and the product that we will be sharing with you soon.”
The Polar Rose plug-in makes photos searchable in a much similar manner to the way text is searched on the Internet today; simply stated, it analyzes the photo and recognizes the people in them.
Polar Rose plug-in beta
“We are very excited by the enhanced information and linking offered by visionary search, and are looking forward to creating a whole new experience by making photos searchable in a new way”, said Nikolaj Nyholm, CEO of Polar Rose.
The company’s brilliant technology models a 3D representation of a face, known as a “facial fingerprint,” from a 2D image; this approach radically improves photo matching by compensating for variations in lighting, facial emotions and pose. After a 3D model has been created, the plug-in will then search for the same, or similar looking images on the web.
Nikolaj also told us that they’ll be releasing a JavaScript API (much likeable to the Google Maps API) which will allow developers to add the Polar Rose functionality to any online album by embedding just a few lines of code.
The Polar Rose beta plug-in for IE and FF will be available by month’s end.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
under
Read more entries by George Gardner.
Stumble It!
