Oh god, the Searle Prophesy is coming true!
Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
61–70 of 83 posts
Re: Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
#62I'm disappointed. I was thinking some one had optimized a template matching algorithm and implemented in an ASIC that you could slot into a camera.
Re: Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
#63It is a cute idea but unfortunately (or fortunately?) this particular implementation of the camera comes with (a) opinions, (b) typos, and (c) probably trolls, if they know that their text will automatically be accepted and printed out. I guess these factors could probably be reduced with more money? I don't mean paying more for the job: I mean using the API to ask a second human to verify the results of the first hu…
I think you're missing the point of it.
What IS the point of it? It seems like a parlor trick to me, especially with the "send it to my friend and have him describe it" option.
I don't see how this gadget is particularly useful in any way, any more than the first "automated chess device" with a midget inside moving chess pieces around was actually revolutionary.
The comments on how it would be useful for the blind (with braille or speech synthesis) is as close as I've seen to a reasonable justification for it. Even then it's a stretch. Beyond that, basing it on Mechanical Turk means every "photo" costs money, and frankly doesn't provide much value.
If you want to caption your photos it would be much better to do it AFTER you've pruned the ones you don't care about, so you're not paying for descriptions of 100 throwaway photos for every keeper. In which case the fact that the camera itself is hooked up to Mechanical Turk is just a gimmick, since it would be easier to run a script on your desktop or on a server.
Re: Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
#64Let me see if I understand this technology correctly: you take a picture of something, mail the picture to someone, somewhere, they write a quick summary of the picture and mail that back to be printed out on what appears to be a thermal receipt printer. Wat?
Yep, and if you can internalize why that makes the front page of HN you can get a sense of what Web 3.0 is going to look like.
Re: Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
#65Amazing - the meta concepts behind the "Descriptive Camera" are limited only by the imagination, the resolution of the sensing devices, the ubiquity/bandwidth of the data pipe, and the ability to manage/train the backend human workforce and maintain a consistent level of quality. I'm pretty certain, that within 3-5 years, a billion dollar company will emerge using the basic concepts captured by the "descriptive camer…
This already exists- remember Google Goggles? Except in this implementation it's a little more hipster/artsy since it prints it out for you on receipt paper. Honestly, as a camera, it is a step backwards. Photographs efficiently capture many times more information than a simple text description. However, what it is a good demonstration of is the growing cognitive abilities of image-reading machines.
It's not trying to be more hipster by printing descriptions, the pictures are described via Mechanical Turk (from humans), this is why it's interesting.
Re: Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
#66I was hoping that the description would be derived algorithmically rather than via human intervention. I guess that really was a bit optimistic though :(
Agreed, the concept's great but really you're just taking a picture then asking someone to describe it & printing that; that tech's been around for a while. A more practical approach may be to develop a camera with access to the web. When pictures have been taken and the camera can get a 3g/4g/wifi network connection it uploads the pics to the cloud (optionally removing or retaining to save space on the camera's loca…
Heh you're describing the whole implementation except for that pesky but critical computer vision part.
Re: Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
#67Let me see if I understand this technology correctly: you take a picture of something, mail the picture to someone, somewhere, they write a quick summary of the picture and mail that back to be printed out on what appears to be a thermal receipt printer. Wat?
Welcome to the world of tomorrow!
It is interesting in its cuteness though; it seems like it could have real applications depending on how 'powerful' the mechanical turk is.
Re: Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
#68 It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Re: Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
#69its too bad tineye doesn't do a better job of matching similar, you could feed the picture in, find the closest match, and then scrape the description off the corresponding pages where it was found.
Re: Descriptive Camera: A camera that prints a description, not an image
#70Here is an idea, translate the text into a picture. An API will take text and generate a representation of the description using images from the web via google image search.
There's been some interesting efforts at that already. eg: WordsEye constructs 3d images from text descriptions http://www.wordseye.com/ Sketch2Photo takes a crude annotated sketch, and creates a composite image: http://cg.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn/montage/main.htm The output of wordseye isn't great - it looks a bit 90's POV-Ray. Sketch2Photo does a nicer job - more like automated photoshopping - but needs more assistance o…
The Wordseye renderer actually happens to be a 90s vintage ray tracer.