PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New algorithm finds you, even in untagged photos

2013-12-02
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Michael Kennedy
m.kennedy@utoronto.ca
416-946-5025
University of Toronto
New algorithm finds you, even in untagged photos

TORONTO, ON – A new algorithm designed at the University of Toronto has the power to profoundly change the way we find photos among the billions on social media sites such as Facebook and Flickr. This month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will issue a patent on this technology.

Developed by Parham Aarabi, a professor in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and his former Master's student Ron Appel, the search tool uses tag locations to quantify relationships between individuals, even those not tagged in any given photo.

Imagine you and your mother are pictured together, building a sandcastle at the beach. You're both tagged in the photo quite close together. In the next photo, you and your father are eating watermelon. You're both tagged. Because of your close 'tagging' relationship with both your mother in the first picture and your father in the second, the algorithm can determine that a relationship exists between those two and quantify how strong it may be.

In a third photo, you fly a kite with both parents, but only your mother is tagged. Given the strength of your 'tagging' relationship with your parents, when you search for photos of your father the algorithm can return the untagged photo because of the very high likelihood he's pictured.

"Two things are happening: we understand relationships, and we can search images better," says Professor Aarabi.

The nimble algorithm, called relational social image search, achieves high reliability without using computationally intensive object- or facial-recognition software.

"If you want to search a trillion photos, normally that takes at least a trillion operations. It's based on the number of photos you have," says Aarabi. "Facebook has almost half a trillion photos, but a billion users—it's almost a 500 order of magnitude difference. Our algorithm is simply based on the number of tags, not on the number of photos, which makes it more efficient to search than standard approaches."

Work on this project began in 2005 in Professor Aarabi's Mobile Applications Lab, Canada's first lab space for mobile application development.

Currently the algorithm's interface is primarily for research, but Aarabi aims to see it incorporated on the back-end of large image databases or social networks. "I envision the interface would be exactly like you use Facebook search—for users, nothing would change. They would just get better results," says Aarabi.

While testing the algorithm, Aarabi and Appel discovered an unforeseen application: a new way to generate maps. They tagged a few photographs of buildings around the University of Toronto and ran them through the system with a bunch of untagged campus photos. "The result we got was of almost a pseudo-map of the campus from all these photos we had taken, which was very interesting," says Aarabi.



INFORMATION:

This work received support from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. It will be presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia Dec. 10, 2013.

More information:

Michael Kennedy
Issues and Media Relations Officer
University of Toronto
Office: 416.946.5025
Cell: 647.282.3563
Email: m.kennedy@utoronto.ca



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New UK study suggests low vitamin D causes damage to brain

2013-12-02
New UK study suggests low vitamin D causes damage to brain LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 2, 2013) — A new study led by University of Kentucky researchers suggests that a diet low in vitamin D causes damage to the brain. In addition to being essential for maintaining bone ...

Can big cats co-exist? Study challenges lion threat to cheetah cubs

2013-12-02
Can big cats co-exist? Study challenges lion threat to cheetah cubs New research into cheetah cub survival has refuted the theory that lions are a cub's main predator and that big cats cannot coexist in conservation areas. The study, published in the Journal of Zoology, ...

A method to predict Alzheimer's disease within 2 years of screening

2013-12-02
A method to predict Alzheimer's disease within 2 years of screening This news release is available in French. At the first signs of memory loss, most people start worrying and wonder, "What if I have Alzheimer's disease?" And yet, the disease ...

Increased risk for cardiac ischemia in patients with PTSD

2013-12-02
Increased risk for cardiac ischemia in patients with PTSD Reports a new study in Biological Psychiatry Philadelphia, PA, December 2, 2013 – There is growing concern that long-term untreated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms may increase the risk of developing ...

US mothers from 1965 to 2010: more TV, less housework

2013-12-02
US mothers from 1965 to 2010: more TV, less housework New research from the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health shows that mothers in the U.S. are far less physically active than they were in previous decades and now spend more ...

Goals affect feelings of pride and shame after success and failure

2013-12-02
Goals affect feelings of pride and shame after success and failure When the St. Louis Cardinals lost the World Series, just how much shame did the players feel? According to researchers at Penn State and Australia's Central Queensland University, a person's goals at the outset of ...

When aluminum outshines gold

2013-12-02
When aluminum outshines gold 2 Rice University studies detail aluminum's valuable plasmonic properties HOUSTON – (Dec. 2, 2013) – Humble aluminum's plasmonic properties may make it far more valuable than gold and silver for certain applications, according to new research by ...

Colon cancer researchers target stem cells, discover viable new therapeutic path

2013-12-02
Colon cancer researchers target stem cells, discover viable new therapeutic path (TORONTO, Canada – Dec. 1, 2013) - Scientists and surgeons at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have discovered a promising new approach to treating colorectal cancer by disarming ...

'Nanosponge vaccine' fights MRSA toxins

2013-12-02
'Nanosponge vaccine' fights MRSA toxins Nanosponges that soak up a dangerous pore-forming toxin produced by MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) could serve as a safe and effective vaccine against this toxin. This "nanosponge vaccine" enabled ...

The mystery of neutron stars heats up

2013-12-02
The mystery of neutron stars heats up Until now, scientists were pretty sure they knew how the surface of a neutron star – a super dense star that forms when a large star explodes and its core collapses into itself – can heat itself up. However, research by ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Using lightning to make ammonia out of thin air

Machine learning potential-driven insights into pH-dependent CO₂ reduction

Physician associates provide safe care for diagnosed patients when directly supervised by a doctor

How game-play with robots can bring out their human side

Asthma: patient expectations influence the course of the disease

UNM physician tests drug that causes nerve tissue to emit light, enabling faster, safer surgery

New study identifies EMP1 as a key driver of pancreatic cancer progression and poor prognosis

XPR1 identified as a key regulator of ovarian cancer growth through autophagy and immune evasion

Flexible, eco-friendly electronic plastic for wearable tech, sensors

Can the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?

Stuckeman professor’s new book explores ‘socially sustainable’ architecture

Synthetic DNA nanoparticles for gene therapy

New model to find treatments for an aggressive blood cancer

Special issue of Journal of Intensive Medicine analyzes non-invasive respiratory support

T cells take aim at Chikungunya virus

Gantangqing site in southwest China yields 300,000-year-old wooden tools

Forests can’t keep up: Adaptation will lag behind climate change

Sturgeon reintroduction initiative yields promising first-year survival rate

Study: Babies’ poor vision may help organize visual brain pathways

Research reveals Arctic region was permafrost-free when global temperatures were 4.5˚ C higher than today

Novel insights into chromophobe renal cell carcinoma biology and potential therapeutic strategies

A breakthrough in motor safety: AI-powered warning system enhances capability to uncover hidden winding faults

Research teases apart competing transcription organization models

Connect or reject: Extensive rewiring builds binocular vision in the brain

Benefits and risks: informal use of antibiotics to prevent sexually transmitted infections on the rise in key populations in the Netherlands

New molecular tool sheds light on how cancer cells repair telomeres

First large-scale stem cell bank enables worldwide studies on genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease

Hearing devices significantly improve social lives of those with hearing loss

CNIC scientists reveal how the cellular energy system evolved—and how this knowledge could improve the diagnosis of rare genetic diseases

AI sharpens pathologists' interpretation of tissue samples

[Press-News.org] New algorithm finds you, even in untagged photos