Microsoft today announced a new AI-powered Visual Search function for its Bing search engine that will pretty much directly compete with Google Lens. Visual Search will let users search the web and shop online through pictures they have taken or selected from their camera roll.
For example, you can find out more about a landmark or flower by capturing it through the Bing app or uploading it from your device memory. Visual Search will then identify the object in question and provide web links you can explore further.
In the same way, you can shop for fashion items or furniture. If you see an object you like, take or upload a photo of it and the system will reply with shopping options and pricing for similar-looking items.
The Bing team says Visual Search will be continuously improved and expanded but the current version is available today in the Bing app for iOS and Android as well as Microsoft Launcher and the Microsoft Edge browser for Android. It'll also be soon available in Microsoft Edge for iOS and on Bing.com.
For identifying landmarks, hope it'll be better than that of Google.
As the maintainer of a 8mm film scan archive (see https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4_1cuziVtq8J3leMItMtr708Va6CKFsE ), I very often search for a specific location in the scanned footage. In only about 10% of the cases have I got a hit with Google - mostly with tourits stuff in Italy and the likes.
As I've saved all my "negative hit" 8mm framegrabs as well, I'll try to identify those locations with Bing too.
Hmmm.. sounds at first glance like it could be useful for someone wanting to identify e.g. a bird, butterfly, flower or animal that they've photographed. The problem is whether the AI software could accurately recognise it, and even expert biologists have problems distinguishing some species. Obviously this will takes several decades before it is able to identify wildlife accurately.
So, what can it actually do reliably? I'm not convinced it would recognise many landmarks unaided. Presumably then, the initial intention is to be able to "remember" a particular family member or model's face, so that once the first image is labelled, it can then locate and label all other images of the same person.
One would think that it could be programmed to classify things like beak shape, feather patterns, etc. perhaps at this point it has not been specifically adapted for such cases, and is going in more broad patterns only. Once an open “language” has been created for object classifation, researchers can contribute their knowledge to the algorithm. This could be applied to any subject matter where the identification can be made by inspecting certain features.
There are several apps that do identify wildlife, birds, and plants. Merlin identifies many birds and is adding more all the time. Audubon has an app that identifies many plant species.
desertsp & Nojo - Yes there are apps that can recognise a limited number of the more readily identifiable species of birds, animals, butterflies etc, but a high percentage of identifications require at the very least several photographs taken from different angles.
Many amphibians, reptiles and insects exhibit extreme intraspecific (within species) and geographical variation. Insects, except for a small number of veryy strongly patterned creatures, are particularly difficult, and many require microscopic examination.
So while current/near future apps may cope with a few common and easily recognisable creatures, it will be many years before they are able to reliably recognise a high enough percentage of creatures to fulfil the needs of scientists or anyone who needs/wants accurate identifications.
Did that really say "Bing app for Android"? Since it arrived, I have never seen anyone use Bing, and why is anyone going to want Bing on a Google Android device? Microsoft should have called it Zune Search, to indicate its relevance.
They ain't. The operating systems existed before even Bill Gates was born, even far more existed before Microsoft was founded! Heck, Bill Gates even bought their first OS to sell it to IBM, after they had made deal with IBM to provide them the OS.
Microsoft Office is nothing else than a copying others like Wordstar and WordPerfect, decade before Office and before Microsoft was founded even.
So who had the original thought? Not the Microsoft. Microsoft is not where it is now because they were creative, but because Bill Gates was shady and hard business dealer who just made it.
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