Improved Facial Recognition on Google+

By Marco A. Ayllon
Nautilus Technology News
July 25, 2011

Google acquired facial recognition software specialist Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition (PittPatt) Co., which was born from research at Carnegie Mellon University.

Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition (PittPatt), which makes facial recognition software that identifies users from images and video, was launched in 2004 by Henry Schneiderman, who performed his research both as a student and faculty member of the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute.
Facial recognition software can be an extremely sensitive topic, as Facebook learned in June when its social network users learned the company was using facial recognition to improve its photos product.

The PittPatt team explained in a note on its Website that it would use its computer vision technology and talent in applications that range from simple photo organization to complex video and mobile applications at Google.

"At Google, computer vision technology is already at the core of many existing products (such as Image Search, YouTube, Picasa, and Goggles), so it's a natural fit to join Google and bring the benefits of our research and technology to a wider audience," the PittPatt team wrote.
Thus, a Google spokesperson declined to say in what capacity the company would use PittPatt's software or talent to bolster specific Web services.

Google spokesperson told Nautilus Technology News: "The Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition team has developed pioneering technology in the area of pattern recognition and computer vision," and "We think their research and technology can benefit our users in many ways, and we look forward to working with them."

Moore Criticism & Protest Escalate Over Google+ Accounts Deletions

Above image depicts a presonal page from Google Plus.

By Marco A. Ayllon
Nautilus Technology News
July 25, 2011

We noticed an issue that had been boiling for several weeks and bubbled over this weekend, as Google apparently accelerated deletions of Google+ accounts because of the site's requirement that members use their real names.

Google+ members started complaining about this situation about a week after Google launched the Social Networking site in late June. And over the past three weeks, various Google executives have addressed the issue.
On July 11, Google+ Community Manager Natalie Villalobos tackled the complaints in the site's official discussion forum, reiterating the policy and clarifying the procedure for appealing a deletion.
Still, gripes have continued appearing on the official Google+ discussion board and in other forums like Twitter and personal blogs. The outcry reached a crescendo this weekend when Google zapped the accounts of some high-profile users.
The complaints fall into two categories. There is one group of Google+ users who claim they're using their real names but apparently got their accounts deleted because they have a non-traditional names or their names contain foreign-language characters or letters.
Then there is another camp of people who want to use pseudonyms because they do not want to reveal their real-names for different reasons.
The controversy echoes a concurrent one with public figures and companies that have set up Google+ business profiles, which currently are forbidden and which Google is also deleting. Google hopes to permit business profiles at the next months.
Google maintains that Google+'s content-sharing features and privacy settings are better and easier to use than Facebook's, and that this will prompt a massive defection of Facebook users.
Facebook remains by far the most popular social networking site in the world, with 750 million members and counting. In the next months you could use their new Messenger or Video-Calling powered by Skype which will enable you to send video messages.

NIS, Dallas: New Tablet distribution will Grow

By: Marco A. Ayllon
Nautilus Science and Technology News
February 5, 2011

We estimating that Tablet shipments will grow by a factor of 12 by 2015, according to a report released late Thursday by NIS Dallas.
PC tablets plus Media Tablets, are expected to grow from 17.4 million units in 2010 to 242.3 million in 2015, the report said.

The article states that following the launch of the iPad, a wave of "Honeycomb"-powered Android devices will propel tablets forward, but that consumers expecting Windows tablets will have to wait. Over 80 tablets were reportedly shown at CES; Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook characterized the Android tablets shown there as "vapor".

"The significant growth of the tablet market from 2010 to 2015 will be driven by three successive waves of growth," said Rhoda Alexander, director of monitor research at IHS. "The first wave, which is hitting in 2010 and 2011, was created by the arrival of the iPad and the ensuing tsunami of demand for the device.

The second wave, arriving in 2011 and 2012, will be propelled by a deluge of iPad competitors, particularly Android-based models. The third wave, which will turn up in 2013, will consist of a flood of models based on the Windows operating system that will expand the reach of tablets into traditional computer markets."

NIS broke down the tablet market into media tablets, like the iPad, which are designed to consume media by any operating system. Those tablets, expected to grow from 17.4 million last year to 202 million units and up in 2015, are expected to dwarf those that will run a PC-like operating system, which the research house equated with Windows. Those PC tablets will grow to 39.3 million units in 2015, up from 2.3 million units in 2010, the report said.

Although the iPad virtually launched the current generation of tablets, NIS predicted that it would lose its majority position by 2013, when Android tablets were more established and Windows tablets are expected to emerge. Alexander also said that tablet makers using the Android OS are pushing features that Apple has yet to include, including 4G.

"At least three of the major Android tablets released at the Consumer Electronics Show in January featured built-in support for a 4G wireless communications technology: long-term evolution (LTE)," said Francis Sideco, principal analyst, wireless communications at IHS. "With iPad only supporting 3G for now, it will be interesting to see the outcome of the battle pitting the allure of technology—i.e. LTE—against the appeal of usability—i.e. the iPad's benchmark user friendliness."

Mr. Alexander also said that there's a possibility that Apple could release a MacOS tablet as well. "The year 2013 will mark a critical juncture, as the tablet market turns into a battleground between media tablets using mobile operating systems, and PC-type tablets employing the Windows operating system," Alexander said. "Add to this mix the competition from ever-improving smart phones, and the mobile device market will get very interesting."