DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Facebook releases image identification software to the public

Aug 29, 2016 by John Aldred 1 Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

facebook_image_id

Facebook has announced that it is releasing three of its main image identification algorithms to the public. It’s not the first time Facebook has opened its research to the public, and it likely won’t be the last. In this particular instance, Facebook say that they hope the work will “rapidly advance the field of machine vision”.

Such technology has already come a long way in just the last few years. It’s a bit like what you see on Google when you search by uploading a image. It makes an attempt to identify the person, place, or object in the image, and offer similar or related results. It’s also similar to the technology coming in the iOS 10 update to automatically categorise your photos.

We’re making the code for DeepMask+SharpMask as well as MultiPathNet — along with our research papers and demos related to them — open and accessible to all, with the hope that they’ll help rapidly advance the field of machine vision.

Such functionality is far more widespread than many of us think. With over 300 million uploads per day, detecting what’s in a image makes life easier for the system and us. Facebook has had facial recognition, for example, for a long time now. You upload a photo of a group of people, it recognises a “friend” and suggests you tag them.

14146891_1635044716824695_382934461_n

Running facial recognition on every landscape, and cat photo uploaded to Facebook, however, would be a huge waste of resources. This is where algorithms like those now made public step in. They detect objects in your scene, where they are and then how many of them are in your scene. If there’s no person in the shot, it doesn’t waste time with facial recognition. This is why faces detected in coffee cup foam and clouds isn’t happening as often as it used to.

The code released now is basically a two part process. One identifies where objects are in the scene and how many of them there are. This is the DeepMask+SharpMask bit. Deepmask figures out the rough outlines of objects. SharpMask refines them. MultiPathNet then attempts to identify exactly what each object is. Is it a person? a dog? a donut? a giraffe?

14129678_1295994390440912_1435692944_n

Facebook’s next challenge is to apply the techniques to video. With objects that are moving and changing over time, as well as interacting with each other, it adds a whole new level of complexity.

The idea behind the technology is fascinating, and certainly holds a lot of potential for future application. Seeing what the general coding public makes of it will be equally as interesting.

You can read more about it on Facebook Research. The code is available for download on GitHub. You can get DeepMask+SharpMask here, and MultiPathNet here.

Will you be playing with the code? Even if you’re not, what ideas can you come up with where this type of image recognition would be useful? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

[via Popular Photography]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

New York Public Library releases over 187K digitized works into the Public Domain FAA is developing a remote identification system for personal drones Facebook can track every image uploaded to it even outside of Facebook with a “hidden” digital tag Photoshop plugin veterans Alien Skin Software is changing its name to Exposure Software

Filed Under: news Tagged With: facebook, Github, Neural Networks, open source

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« Light is KING! 10 Tips on Handling Light in Street and Urban Photography
Yi Technology are releasing a handheld gimbal for action cameras? »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy