Digital cameras can tell a head from a bed, Facebook organises photos by manually-added face tags, iPhoto tries its best to put a name to a face. But really good technology to auto-identify the people in pictures could have big application on the web.
Last week, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) was rumoured to have acquired Polar Rose, a Swedish company making such software for web and other uses, for $29 million.
Now, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Face.com, which says its software can automatically pluck out any pictures of you from Facebook’s seven billion photos, has raised a $4.3 million second-round investment, as that prospect steps up.
The Face.com money is coming from VC Rhodium, Russian search site Yandex and existing backers. “We’re going to use the money to boost our development team, hire some new and talented people, and build out additional infrastructure,” CEO Gil Hirsh blogs.
The uses for true facial recognition are clear to see…
—Facebook could eliminate the need for users to “tag” friends in pictures.
—Mobile phones could automatically identify portrait subjects before photos are shared with online services.
—Searchers like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yandex could make their image search more accurate.
—iPhoto could improve its people-centric picture library.
—Ditch the business cards: just point a camphone at a new contact’s face to get his/her details.
For these and other reasons, visual recognition could become a hot M&A area. Consider what Google is doing with its mobile shopping app and Google Googles app, having this year acquired a visual art recognition startup to bolster the latter.
The model: licensing. Polar Rose this month closed its free face-tagging demo service to concentrate on licensing its technology to users. It and Face.com use APIs to enable facial recognition for third parties.
Tomorrow we’re taping our second episode of “Ask a VC” where you email in questions and I ask them. Satish Dharmaraj of Redpoint Ventures is the guest. He’s a relatively new VC, having joined Redpoint after making them a lot of money when he sold Zimbra to Yahoo for $350 million– directly without a banker. Yeah, he’s kind of a bad ass.
Dharmaraj doesn’t mince words so expect honest answers. And there are a ton of things Dharmaraj is perfect to talk about including the sell-or-not-to-sell dilemma, his thoughts on the Yahoo drama, whether his copious operating experience is or isn’t that much of an advantage to entrepreneurs he invests in, the future of open source or business software, his angel investing in India, his absurdly tricked out Prius thanks to George Barris of Batmobile fame, and of course any practical questions on pitching Redpoint. (The car is above, see a video I did about it when I was at TechTicker here.)
We’ve already gotten a good number of questions, but to add yours email askavc(at)techcrunch(dot)com.
<b>News</b> Roundup: Gordon Ramsay Responds to Chef's Suicide, Brad <b>...</b>
Gordon Ramsay has opened up about the death of 'Kitchen Nightmares' contestant Joseph Cerniglia. According to Entertainment Weekly, Ramsay expressed.
Murata Seisakusho Robot Learns New Skill « Akihabara <b>News</b>
To pursue its growth Akihabara News is seeking for several more editors via an intership program for 6 to 9 months. Please send us a mail @ jobs@akihabaranews.com. Message. We are moving away from Feedburner, please update your RSS ...
Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger.
bench craft company rip off
bench craft company rip off
<b>News</b> Roundup: Gordon Ramsay Responds to Chef's Suicide, Brad <b>...</b>
Gordon Ramsay has opened up about the death of 'Kitchen Nightmares' contestant Joseph Cerniglia. According to Entertainment Weekly, Ramsay expressed.
Murata Seisakusho Robot Learns New Skill « Akihabara <b>News</b>
To pursue its growth Akihabara News is seeking for several more editors via an intership program for 6 to 9 months. Please send us a mail @ jobs@akihabaranews.com. Message. We are moving away from Feedburner, please update your RSS ...
Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger.
benchcraft company scam benchcraft company scam
Digital cameras can tell a head from a bed, Facebook organises photos by manually-added face tags, iPhoto tries its best to put a name to a face. But really good technology to auto-identify the people in pictures could have big application on the web.
Last week, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) was rumoured to have acquired Polar Rose, a Swedish company making such software for web and other uses, for $29 million.
Now, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Face.com, which says its software can automatically pluck out any pictures of you from Facebook’s seven billion photos, has raised a $4.3 million second-round investment, as that prospect steps up.
The Face.com money is coming from VC Rhodium, Russian search site Yandex and existing backers. “We’re going to use the money to boost our development team, hire some new and talented people, and build out additional infrastructure,” CEO Gil Hirsh blogs.
The uses for true facial recognition are clear to see…
—Facebook could eliminate the need for users to “tag” friends in pictures.
—Mobile phones could automatically identify portrait subjects before photos are shared with online services.
—Searchers like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yandex could make their image search more accurate.
—iPhoto could improve its people-centric picture library.
—Ditch the business cards: just point a camphone at a new contact’s face to get his/her details.
For these and other reasons, visual recognition could become a hot M&A area. Consider what Google is doing with its mobile shopping app and Google Googles app, having this year acquired a visual art recognition startup to bolster the latter.
The model: licensing. Polar Rose this month closed its free face-tagging demo service to concentrate on licensing its technology to users. It and Face.com use APIs to enable facial recognition for third parties.
Tomorrow we’re taping our second episode of “Ask a VC” where you email in questions and I ask them. Satish Dharmaraj of Redpoint Ventures is the guest. He’s a relatively new VC, having joined Redpoint after making them a lot of money when he sold Zimbra to Yahoo for $350 million– directly without a banker. Yeah, he’s kind of a bad ass.
Dharmaraj doesn’t mince words so expect honest answers. And there are a ton of things Dharmaraj is perfect to talk about including the sell-or-not-to-sell dilemma, his thoughts on the Yahoo drama, whether his copious operating experience is or isn’t that much of an advantage to entrepreneurs he invests in, the future of open source or business software, his angel investing in India, his absurdly tricked out Prius thanks to George Barris of Batmobile fame, and of course any practical questions on pitching Redpoint. (The car is above, see a video I did about it when I was at TechTicker here.)
We’ve already gotten a good number of questions, but to add yours email askavc(at)techcrunch(dot)com.
benchcraft company scam
<b>News</b> Roundup: Gordon Ramsay Responds to Chef's Suicide, Brad <b>...</b>
Gordon Ramsay has opened up about the death of 'Kitchen Nightmares' contestant Joseph Cerniglia. According to Entertainment Weekly, Ramsay expressed.
Murata Seisakusho Robot Learns New Skill « Akihabara <b>News</b>
To pursue its growth Akihabara News is seeking for several more editors via an intership program for 6 to 9 months. Please send us a mail @ jobs@akihabaranews.com. Message. We are moving away from Feedburner, please update your RSS ...
Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger.
bench craft company rip off benchcraft company scam
<b>News</b> Roundup: Gordon Ramsay Responds to Chef's Suicide, Brad <b>...</b>
Gordon Ramsay has opened up about the death of 'Kitchen Nightmares' contestant Joseph Cerniglia. According to Entertainment Weekly, Ramsay expressed.
Murata Seisakusho Robot Learns New Skill « Akihabara <b>News</b>
To pursue its growth Akihabara News is seeking for several more editors via an intership program for 6 to 9 months. Please send us a mail @ jobs@akihabaranews.com. Message. We are moving away from Feedburner, please update your RSS ...
Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger.
bench craft company rip off benchcraft company scam
<b>News</b> Roundup: Gordon Ramsay Responds to Chef's Suicide, Brad <b>...</b>
Gordon Ramsay has opened up about the death of 'Kitchen Nightmares' contestant Joseph Cerniglia. According to Entertainment Weekly, Ramsay expressed.
Murata Seisakusho Robot Learns New Skill « Akihabara <b>News</b>
To pursue its growth Akihabara News is seeking for several more editors via an intership program for 6 to 9 months. Please send us a mail @ jobs@akihabaranews.com. Message. We are moving away from Feedburner, please update your RSS ...
Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect will talk to MSN Messenger.
bench craft company rip off
No comments:
Post a Comment