How does image search work?

[davidedric]

Hi,

I think this counts as photography. A little background. We were on holiday, and in one place we were staying my wife saw and admired a cross stitch tapestry. Unfortunately, neither our host nor the originator (her sister) could remember where the pattern came from (it was several years old).

So, I took a photograph, processed it as best I could, and looked for it through Google Image Search.

Bingo! Several hits, which led me to buying a kit off ebay.

So, here is my photo, and one of the image hits. I think the hit is a photo of the front of the tapestry kit.

Anyone know how this works?

[Shadowman]

Confused, which kit did you buy?

[Mike Buckley]

I think it's image-recognition technology at work. Similar to face-recognition technology. Beyond that, I have no idea how it works.

As another example of it, the cataloging software that I use conducts a search of two or more images in the catalog that are exactly the same, unlike your pair of images that are only essentially the same. It produces all the images, if any, that are alike.

Very smart of you to photograph the tapestry and to run it through Google Image Search. I had never heard of it.

[dje]

Hey Dave, I can't help with the technology you mention but just wanted to give you a heads up that your first image has been replaced with a rogue image of a scantily clad girl! If I see it there are probably others who see it too but it doesn't necessarily follow that everybody sees the rogue image. Believe me, the technology has failed badly based on the two images I currently see.

Dave

[davidedric]

Hey Dave, I can't help with the technology you mention but just wanted to give you a heads up that your first image has been replaced with a rogue image of a scantily clad girl! If I see it there are probably others who see it too but it doesn't necessarily follow that everybody sees the rogue image. Believe me, the technology has failed badly based on the two images I currently see.

Dave

Well, I keep trying but no luck so far

Since the pictures are both uploaded from my computer using Tinypic, I suspect a gremlins there.

Incidentally,the tapestry was hanging on a wall on Kangaroo Island SA, and the kit is coming from the USA - ain't technology wonderful.

Dave

[lunaticitizen]

Just a guess, they probably built a mathematical model for all images (which already have keywords or website info and such tagged onto them) in their database. When someone uploaded an image, they compute it and compare the result to their database. Then they just display the result.

One of the most famous algorithm (and the only one I understand ) is called feature detection, which look for image deformation such as blur, rotation, and some others.

[dem]

If you ask Google, that's some of the hits:

https://www.quora.com/How-does-Googl...ch-engine-work

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_image_search

[dje]

your first image has been replaced with a rogue image of a scantily clad girl!

The original image is back!