December 7, 2011 by pmelcher.

Finally a smart exact match image finder with accurate results. Current image match operators use a lazy approach to find similar images. They scan the images and look for exact replica patterns in other images, regardless of content. The result is that they sometimes , or very often, get fooled by exact patterns that have nothing to do with the original image . Sometimes we are left to wonder.
This project from Carnegie Mellon University  uses a more human approach. It first compares the image with a pool of images that have nothing to do with the original. The reason ? To find out what is different thus notable. It then takes that information and proceeds with the match search. So, not only it searches for exact patterns, it also keeps on track by making sure that the notable element(s) of the image are included, discarding others.
The result is a much more efficient result, matching more precisely what a human would be looking for.
See video here:

The issue with image search on the internet is, however, not solved. With millions of images being uploaded everyday, with billions of websites changing their content daily, it is currently impossible to index and search all images. Sites like Tineye, although claiming 2 billion images indexed is still only indexing a nugget of the image universe. Not even  mighty Google can keep up.
Thus, this technology is certainly a step in the right direction and could work wonders in a closed image database but it still will not find all the images out there.

Posted in technology, commercial stock, idee, Search, google, editorial | Print | No Comments »

June 15, 2011 by pmelcher.

It was bound to happen. Like clockwork, Google has released its Tineye killer :

Google’s version is much better as it also offers exact match with size option, similars, and of course any context relevant to the imageSince Google has a million time more resources than Idee, the company behind Tineye, it is obvious who will will. The question becomes what will Idee do with the billions of images it has already indexed ?

More on this info and Tineye reaction ( or lack of) : The Financial Post

Posted in technology, idee, Search, google | Print | No Comments »

October 20, 2010 by pmelcher.

We have been advocating the emergence of the “intelligent image” here for many years.  Images that are able to call back home to deliver pertinent data, images that can automatically find their way to the expecting viewers, images that can self edit according to viewership and a lot more.

Some aspects are already in circulation in one form or another. Companies like Fotoglif or Embedanything, for example, already allow licensors to track number of visits on a published image and eventually reap revenues from associated  advertising.

Daylife, partly owned by Getty Images, allow sites to bypass photo editors and have images edit themselves based on surrounding content.

Now, thanks to a company called Netbat ( What’s with all the horrible stupid names ?),  images can be linked to any and all relevant information, thus making them even more informative.

The process is simple. When a image is published, it is also populated with links for more information on the subject, being at Youtube, Wikipedia, or any other sources. Thus the image becomes the starting point for a relevant web-wide search on the topic.

 The company apparent business plan is to sell that search link space to advertisers so that topic/subject can be linked to a brand. Already Pepsi has signed up. Instead of advertising on random images, netBat can make sure a brand is always associated to a personality or a topic and nothing more/less. It’s not a big surprise as the parent company of netBat is in the business of selling celebrity endorsement. But that is not what is interesting here.

What is interesting here is how, once again, a company from outside the photogrpahy space, find another way to monetize images . While countless of photo agencies and independent photographers are moaning and bitching about the declining space rates/ day rates  / whatever rates being offered in the traditional licensing space, other companies are hard at work in redefining paying usage of photography.

NetBat, like Pixazza, another image monetizing company (this one partly owned by Google), has no intention of splitting revenues with image licensors. For them, once an image has been licensed by a publisher, the licensor is out of the profit sharing scheme.

Thing is, photo agencies should be the ones offering these services to their clients, not third party companies. It would make sense for a photo agency to offer a tool like NetBat that would allow visitors to go  beyond the metadata.  To transform their offering to a vast array of option that are up to pace with current and upcoming technology.

Currently, besides having painfully switched from analog to digital, none are being pro active in redefining image delivery and licensing. Some have timidly put a toe into third party initiative but none have taken a full plunged into uncharted territory.

We are not saying netBat will be a success. Actually, it is so heavy, it is doubtful it will ever be. However, the idea of helping viewers to go beyond the image is a great concept. One that fits perfectly  with the unstoppable maturing of photography into an intelligent experience that can take you places far beyond it’s current solitary confinement.

Posted in copyright, celebrity, magazine, technology, license, Search, transaction, finance, photojournalism, google, editorial | Print | 2 Comments »

April 29, 2010 by pmelcher.

What is new is not always good. While everyone is trying to figure out where the world of licensed photography is going to, others are taking advantage of the void by figuring out parasitical way to profit from it.

We already do know that Google has figured out how to make money, and huge sums of it, by cashing in on others creative content. By slapping ads on the creation of others, they are the ultimate business parasite. At least, with Adsense, they have offered the creators a share of the income generated. Typical of a long tail type of business, they are, however, the only ones to really profit from it.

With a company called Pixazza, they have figured out how to feed upon the photography world. If you are not aware of it, Pixazza offers website the ability to attached on any image they publish, a pop up window that invites you to purchase the same clothes as the ones wore by the celebs in the images.

Websites that participate get a commission on every sale of clothes that is generated from their site. The photographers who took the images? nothing. Pixazza actually uses the image as a selling tool yet gives nothing back to the photogrpahers, only to the publishers. In theory, and maybe in practice, a publisher could easily purchase a license for an image and make a profit from it. Interesting no. Sure, it is not much different then what is going on in magazine or more traditional ads on website. After all, it is the business model for editorial publication to make a profit from ads attached to their articles and layouts. But in this case, instead of being a generic ad, it is actually 100 % dependent on the photograph and its content.

So now, on top of publishers making money on your images, there is this new company, who have done nothing more than create a piece of code. Do photographers see their income grow too from this added value ? nope.  Does Pixazza care? Certainly not.

It doesn’t seem like much right now for those not shooting celebrities, but it will very soon . They have just extended their offering to travel and sports images. And that is only the begging. Soon, any image will have this parasite on it. The near future, if all goes well ?

Well, why do you think Google invested in this company? Because it fits perfectly its business model. the parasite kind: Attach an ad to everything on the internet. The next step ? Well Google might decide to purchase Getty, make all the images available for free to everyone, as long as Pixazza is attached to them. Can you imagine the revenue they would get ? And the damage they would do to the photo industry?

However, they don’t even have to go that far. If Pixazza is succesful in implanting themselves on every website, they could make a huge fortune without ever paying a dime to photographers. Ever. Your images would become ad platform without you ever seeing a penny from it. Pretty cool, no ?

There is no reason for this to stop currently, as none of the photo agencies or photographers seem to mind. Some seem to think this is really great because it’s new and its Google powered, at least financially. Once they see their images licensed for editorial use hijacked into  a commercial , it is doubtful they will still be smiling . But it will be too late.

It’s not new, it’s just evil.

Posted in copyright, license, celebrity, technology, commercial stock, keyword, google, editorial, transaction, finance, filter, getty | Print | 3 Comments »

April 12, 2010 by pmelcher.

The acquisition of Plink by Google marks the debut of a potent revolution for the photo world. Not because Plink is a special company, nor that Google really cares about the photo world, but for the technical implication that it implies.

As it is frequent with Google, it is not the company they purchase, but the talent.  Plink, if you do not know, is a company that does  ( did ?) visual search. Take a picture of a painting and it will find the original along with the information. All from your cell phone. Nothing really new : LTU Technology has such such for the Iphone and Idee or Picsout could easily replicate same in ten minutes if they were not so busy trying to find a sustainable business model.

No, what is interesting is the what they how Google intends to expand this technology and use the migrating talents. They will integrate with Google Goggles , their project of photographing with your cell phone a place, object etc and returning a search result.Thus eliminating text based queries. The smarts ones here can see where we are going with this

For that to happen, Google needs to improve object recognition technology. If anyone can do it, and do it well, they can.  There will now be a thousand companies competing in that field, if only to  be  hopefully acquire by Google ( which is a more popular exit strategy then doing an IPO, these days). So what does it mean for the photo world?  Well, at first , the end of manually entered text keywords. With this, an image can be scanned and all content automatically identified and added to the keyword list. Goodbye to the thousands ( mostly in India), that currently provide this process manually. The hard, if not very hard part, will be the conceptual keywords.

What is fresh ? what is happy ? what is “in love”  ? Computers will have a very hard time to decipher human emotions and concepts. It’s not impossible, just very hard. However, 90% of the process will be done already.

It will place Google in a very advance part of the search technology as it will not be easy and simple to replicate. It will accelerate the camera to desktop cycle for photo agencies that use it well, it will make Microstock even more automated and cheaper to process.

So, while you think on how and what to invest in your keywording  work flow, think about what is just around the corner and about to make your competition more cost effective than you. Think about how to reduce manual labor in favor of automated processes. Think about abandoning those endless discussion about how to handle your keywords because so, it will not be an issue. Finally, if you are a company making revenue solely or primarily on providing keywording, the time to change is now.

More on Plink acquisition here.

Posted in Search, commercial stock, keyword, google, prosumer, web 2.0, Microstock | Print | 1 Comment »

April 7, 2010 by pmelcher.

American Society of Media Photographers, the Graphic Artists Guild, the Picture Archive Council of America, the North American Nature Photography Association, Professional Photographers of America, photographers Leif Skoogfors, Al Satterwhite, Morton Beebe, Ed Kashi and illustrators John Schmelzer and Simms Taback  have filed a class action suite against Google, not only for their rights Grabbing Google project but also for other of Google’s mistreatment of photography’s right. This is great news a first worldwide.

The “do no evil” company has been scanning millions of books and magazine to repurchase them for online usage ( including paid) without even asking for copyright clearance from photogrpaher over content. Millions of images are thus available or will be available online without anyone paying an additional license fee, required for such usage.

This class action will reopen the doors to the fame  11 year long legal action of  Greenberg VS National Geographic that terminated when the Supreme Court denied Greenberg’s petition for a writ of certiorari, which lets stand the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding that the National Geographic Society – and by extension, other publishers – have the right to reproduce their magazines’ archive in digital format without paying any additional royalties to freelance photographers.

Certainly this judgment will be used by Google to obtain clearance to  continue their trampling of copyright, thus they are not the original publishers.

Obviously, nothing will be resolved quickly but it is the right step in the right direction. One question is, will this group have enough money to pursue this legal battle ? Will this push publishers to use more Royalty Free image as to avoid such issue? Will this impact what publishers are currently doing with reproducing their print publication for Ipad without paying any additional license fees?

More details on the legal move here.

Posted in copyright, magazine, technology, google, web 2.0, law, finance, Uncategorized | Print | 1 Comment »

April 5, 2010 by pmelcher.

The surf wizard. the Photo bot. Give a keyword to a bot, it comes back with the image. Better, enter a concept, or a description. it will then surf the whole wide web and return with an image. Whether from an amateur or pro, it won’t matter. Because the image matters. Like information, the image will come to you, instead of you having to got to the image. That is the future of image search.

If you are not in a rush, it could scout for days, weeks, waiting for the perfect image. It could even us knowledge base intelligence to return the exact photograph, based on thousands, millions, gazillions of queries and rejects/approvals.   It would be hard not to find the right image anymore, extremely hard.

Sure, it could use similar search, as well of graphical input. The technology exists already, it just has not been out in place.  The reason is that technology would not be profitable for anyone but a geek who could care about revenue.

Just imagine : You send a email with a photo description, and like a dog, it comes back with the right image. All you would have to do is license it properly and your done. No more webs browsing in multiple password protected photo collection, no more spending hours on Flickr, Google images or others looking at irrelevant images. You would continue your work as the bot would do the search for you.

It shouldn’t be long before we see this, or very similar product.

Posted in license, focus, technology, commercial stock, Search, keyword, filter, flickr, google, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

March 16, 2010 by pmelcher.

Dear Copyright Advocates,

The Obama Administration is asking to hear from YOU, the creative backbone of our country, about how intellectual property infringement affects YOUR livelihood. The Administration is also seeking advice on what the government could be doing to better protect the rights of artists and creators in our country.

  HERE’S A CHANCE FOR YOU TO BE HEARD!

BACKGROUND:

Last year President Obama appointed and the U.S. Senate confirmed Victoria Espinel to be the first U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. Her job is “to help protect the creativity of the American public” by coordinating with all the federal agencies that fight the infringement of intellectual property, which includes creating and selling counterfeit goods; pirating video games, music, and books; and infringing upon the many other creative works that are produced by artists in this country.

As you know, the unauthorized copying, sale, and distribution of artists’ intellectual property directly impacts the ability of artists and creators to control the use of their own creativity, not to mention their ability to receive income they have earned from their labor. This impacts U.S. employment and the economy, and our ability to globally compete.

As required by an Act of Congress (The PRO‐IP Act of 2008), Ms. Espinel and her White House team are preparing a Joint Strategic Plan that will include YOUR FEEDBACK on the costs and risks that intellectual property infringement has on the American public.

Here’s how to make yourself heard!

1. Send an email to Ms. Espinel and the Obama Administration: intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov and copy the Copyright Alliance on your email: info@copyrightalliance.org

2. Begin your letter with “The Copyright Alliance has informed me of this welcome invitation from the Obama Administration to share my thoughts on my rights as a creator.”

3. Include in your email: your story, why intellectual property rights are important to you, how piracy and infringement affect you, and what the U.S. government can do to better protect the rights of creative Americans.

4. Also include in your email: your name, city, state, and what type of artist you are 5. DO NOT include any personal or private information as all comments will be posted publically

on the White House website. All comments must be submitted by Wednesday, March 24 by 5:00 p.m. EST.

Don’t be shy! Take two minutes today to make your voice heard, and don’t forget to spread the word to everyone you know. Forward this notice using this short URL ‐ http://bit.ly/cjDZJt ‐ by email, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and more!

Best,

Lucinda Dugger

Posted in license, copyright, technology, google, web 2.0, news, law, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

January 11, 2010 by pmelcher.

Photography should be a revolutionary act. It should be a kick in the establishment, the common, the mundane. It has to be an act of revolt against banality and conformity, a powerful explosion of new ideas. It should be as violent to the mind as a thousand thunderstorms. It should rip apart the accepted social fabric . It should denounce, point, accuse and solve. In one frame. It should be a declaration of war to everything we take for granted and accept as obvious.

It should incessantly question reality with the passion of a martyr. A constant question mark, it should make our leaders fear it, and our priest denounce it. It should know no frontiers, no borders, no cultural identity. It should have the same impact East of Bangkok and South of Lima.

Photography should be lifted high and proud by those who request to change the world as a constant demand for reform and social changes. It should beg for perfection, over and over, pointing at all the little details of injustice, abuse, destruction and greed. It should rattle every misconception until they break into a pathetic silence.

Too much of what we see today in photography ( thank you, commercial stock) is a sea of banality, of repetition, of dullness. It is status quo and no more. A long straight road of  boring pre digested concept. Like a TV dinner : Please reheat and serve hot. Millions upon millions of images that rote just a few days after being exposed, so much full of artifice they are. A constant stream of annoying visual buzz that we hardly notice anymore.

Photography should shove you out of your chair, make you react, force you to rethink everything you ever took for granted. It should stop you dead in your track and make you want to change your whole life, and the ones of those around you. It should haunt you  in your sleep, follow you all day and make you feel naked. It should empower you to make that change you had in you. It should break the heavy top that sat on top of  that lava revolt you have in you. Break the ice of indifference you so conveniently ignore.  It should not be a warm cosy blanket that keep you warm in the middle of a cold winter night but rather the violent act of removing it and exposing you to the freezing winds. A window blasted open.

Some aspects of photography are dying because too many have forgotten the revolutionary roots of photography, its iconoclastic heritage. As it becomes more common it also becomes more dull. Slowly, the reign of the medium is taking over. Medium quality, medium content, medium effect. Photography is becoming pretty, useful, a business. It’s an industry of expectedness, where chance and luck disappears in favor of technocrats shooting bullet points.

It should never live in a sales channel or exposed to RPI’s. It should never suffer the humiliation of being included in a compilation or a theme. It should never be treated as something you search for in a immense repository of banality. Finally, it should never suffer the assassination of being sold via a subscription.

Posted in google, license, celebrity, commercial stock, web 2.0, prosumer, news, editorial, photojournalism, Royalty free | Print | No Comments »

December 10, 2009 by pmelcher.

It is just a question of time. Not years but probably months. Already a lot of desktop consumer based application are offering a glimpse of its power : Image recognition. Google has recently taken it a step further. Search with Image recognition.

“The concept of Google Goggles is dead simple- a user snaps a photo of an object around them, be it a book, building, text or any other object, and the app will return a search result tailored to for that object” explains mobilemarketingwatch.com.

Say you walk in front of a building and would like more info, just snap a picture of it, submit to Google Goggles and voila. Same goes for CD’s , Books, paintings and maybe photographs too. Still in its infancy, Google Goggles , when launched live, will mark the debut of image recognition  as a replacement of text search. For now, the Goggles project is limited to objects. Soon, once the Google lawyers can figure how to get around privacy laws, it will also work with people too. Meet someone new. Take a snap and in 5 seconds, you will know there whole history. Well, at least the one available online.

What does it mean to the photo industry ? Many, many changes. First, a new way to search. All database will soon be able to also offer such a search to their clients. Google tends to create standards. It is nit a bad thing, except for the technophiles out there. Just imagine: Your metadata could be incorrect and image would still be found.  A few companies already offer this technology but not as deep as Google. LTU tech or Idee, for example, will do image matching . That is, if images look similar, regardless of what is in the image. Goggles recognizes what is in the image and looks for that, and not similar images.

Google new visual search will mainly be a huge help for image key wording. Since its inception, it has been notorious for offering free API’s ( that’s a little backdoor that lets two applications talk together) to its technologies. That will allow savvy programmers to tie an image database to Goggles and have all its image indexed automatically. Those microstock will be all over this technology.  While certainly incapable to add emotion or concepts, it will however facilitate a lot of the tedious work of recognizing content.

Companies like Imense who is currently offering similar technology will certainly take a huge hit. Same goes with Idee and its CD or book Iphone apps.

While there is nothing dramatically new in this technology, it is the shear power of Google already indexed document that will make this a success. They will be hardly any images that will not return a result, besides maybe those “artistic” ones.

If you have an android phone, you can try it now : Google Goggles.

Posted in idee, technology, commercial stock, celebrity, keyword, web 2.0, google, editorial | Print | No Comments »