The Disappearing Android App
On August 26th, in a post titled “Google’s (Not So) Secret Strategy”, Phineas JW wrote on Android Guys (www.androidguys.com) on why Android application Enkin not only didn’t make the first cut in the Android Developers Competition (much to the surprise of many), but literally disappeared from view. As Phineas points out, the very last words (dated May 17th) on Enkin’s blog were….
“The first round of the Google Android Developer Challenge is over and the list of winners has been released…
“As some of you already noticed, Enkin is not one of them. We could speculate about the reasons for this, but there is more interesting news:
“We have been contacted by Google separately and they, too, are excited about our project.
“So at this point in time there are a number of possibilities for the project’s future, which we are currently exploring.” http://enkinblog.blogspot.com/
Enkin was gone, but Phineas JW suggested that Enkin will reappear as “Live View” a mobile part of Google’s Street View, a “real-time, real-life ‘map’ of your current location, using the phone’s built-in camera, compass, and GPS, with floating annotations of your destination(s)”. In short, the disappeared Enkin would magically reappear as an important part of a new Google Killer App. It was an interesting and very likely theory.
Let me tell you another little story.
Neven Vision – What Was It?
Once upon a time…
No, let me be more precise.
On August 14, 2006, a company called Neven Vision was a worldwide leader in the field of image recognition. The company, founded by Dr. Hartmut Neven, had its headquarters in Santa Monica, California and offices in Japan, Germany and the U.K.
Neven Vision was among the world’s top three companies—and perhaps the top—in visual recognition technology. Its products consistently scored in the top three in the U.S. Government’s Facial Recognition Vendor Test. Clients successfully using their products included Coca Cola in Germany, DoCoMo in Japan, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its facial recognition technology was the best in the world, integrating facial analysis, iris scanning and skin texture analysis.
Neven was the only company that had high-level image recognition software that would run on camera-enabled mobile devices. The phones did basic initial processing, then sent their image and data to Neven’s servers for complete analysis. Neven then returned the results of their analysis to the phones.
Neven’s new product iScout promised to bring its technology to cell phones around the world, revolutionizing sales, marketing and a host of other interactive information industries. http://tinyurl.com/6qjgk7
Here’s what Neven Vision founder Dr. Hartmut Neven said about his technology at a presentation in Munich several years ago. http://tinyurl.com/k5jm5 (After a few minutes in German, the video switches to English)
Dr. Neven discussed iScout’s ability to:
- Tie in with print advertising [which Google has been testing for the past year or so.]
- Turn your breakfast table into a mini shopping mall.
- Mobile marketing
- Product packaging
- Magazines
- Billboards
- Movie posters
- Travel Guide (picture of storefront, bar, restaurant, nightclub)
- Car/equipment manuals
- Biometric facial identification (tested in Los Angeles, Iraq and Afghanistan) (DoCoMo phones use this for user authentication)
Vision Lost
On August 14, Neven Vision was on the top of the world. The next day, it disappeared.
What happened? How could a company that was already so successful and with such vast potential suddenly disappear? What happened to the skilled engineers, the valuable patents, the remarkable expertise?
Simple. Google bought them all.
On the 15th of August 2006 Google ran this announcement (in part) on its official blog:
“We’ve been working to make Picasa (Google’s free photo-organizing software) even better when it comes to searching for your own photos—to make finding them be as easy as finding stuff on the web. Luckily we’ve found some people who share this goal, and are excited that the Neven Vision team is now part of Google.
“Neven Vision comes to Google with deep technology and expertise around automatically extracting information from a photo. It could be as simple as detecting whether or not a photo contains a person, or, one day, as complex as recognizing people, places, and objects. This technology just may make it a lot easier for you to organize and find the photos you care about. We don’t have any specific features to show off today, but we’re looking forward to having more to share with you soon.” http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/better-way-to-organize-photos.html
Neven Vision ran a simple notice on its website and then the website froze in time, eventually disappearing. (Although it can still be found at archive.org).
“Thank you for your interest. Neven Vision was recently acquired by Google Inc. and Neven Vision product information is no longer available on this site. Click here [link to Google's blog] to learn more.” http://tinyurl.com/5drhjd
There was a flurry of mention and commentary on the acquisition by bloggers and then that too was gone.
A Glimpse of Vision
Is Neven gone forever, buried in the deepest reaches of the Googleplex? Not exactly.
On September 2, 2008 an announcement ran on Google’s official blog. Here’s an excerpt:
“A little over two years ago, we launched Picasa Web Albums to make publishing photos online easy. Now Picasa Web Albums hosts billions of online photos from around the globe, with users adding millions of new snapshots every day…
“Today, we’re rolling out major technology upgrades to both Picasa and Picasa Web Albums…
“For starters, there’s a brand-new feature called “name tags” in Picasa Web Albums that helps you quickly label all the people in your photos, so you can organize and share your photos based on who’s in the picture. Name tags uses advanced technology to automatically group similar faces together.” http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/introducing-picasa-30-and-big-changes.html.
The words “Neven Vision” were never mentioned, but Neven’s technology is undoubtedly behind this new “name tags” feature. And I suggest it’s only the beginning.
Vision Reborn
I suggest that Neven Vision’s full technology will reappear with Android. Perhaps not Android 1.0 but certainly soon thereafter. It will reappear not just as Android’s Killer App, but as Google’s “Killer Industry”; an image analysis system for 2d bar codes and, in fact, all images.
I predict that it will reappear as a technology so far beyond simple bar codes that it will revolutionize not just sales and marketing on the Internet, but how the Internet and cell phones deal with the dissemination of any type of information from theoretically any place in the world. It will be the key to connecting the physical world with the Internet. In this article, I refer to this technology as “GoogleGlyph”, or simply “Glyph”.
What is Google Glyph?
GoogleGlyph is, in my fevered imagination, a system of creating and reading “glyphs”—images that convey information. Google’s Glyph software, as I imagine, would consist of two basic parts: software that creates glyphs (GlyphCreator), and software that reads and deciphers glyphs (GlyphReader).
GlyphCreator
GlyphCreator will be free software (or, more likely, a free web service) that:
- Creates “Glyphs”, a new form of image developed by Google that is much more sophisticated than current bar codes. Glyphs would contain information or instructions of value to a cell phone user. Glyphs could be created by anyone, including advertisers. It could also be set to create any type of existing bar code.
- Takes any existing image provided by a user (or advertiser) and “glyphs” that image so that it contains information desired by the user or advertiser. The original image can be a company logo, product packaging, a text message, a photograph, or basically anything. Any digital image can be processed to contain Glyph-readable data. GoogleCreator will provide glyphs in JPG, GIF, PNG and other formats.
GlyphReader
My current cell phone, as is the case with hundreds of millions of others, does not have the capability to read bar codes because no bar code reader software has been developed for it.
GoogleGlyph will leapfrog that problem. All my phone has to do is take a photo of a bar code and email that photo to Google. Google’s servers in the cloud will always have the latest processing/interpreting capabilities. Google will read the bar code, then send back the URL, data, or whatever information is relevant to the photographed bar code.
Because the processing/image analysis (thanks to Neven Vision technology) is maintained on Google servers, Glyph can read all bar code formats, old and new, including all 2d bar codes, UPC bar codes used on products, and the ISBN bar codes used on books.
Suddenly hundreds of millions—if not billions—of phones will now be able to read bar codes, as long as they’re camera-equipped and can send email. Glyph will likely be able to function with any mobile operating system as well as be an integral part of the standard Android software suite.
Google’s Glyph will truly be a universal bar code reader. One reason that 2d bar codes haven’t yet taken off in the United States is that there is no standard bar code format. Google’s solution is brilliant. No standard is necessary, although Google’s GlyphCreator will probably end up setting a common, if not definitive, one.
In fact, Google’s solution to the many types of bar codes is truly Zen-like. It is the “standard of no standards”. The reader for any new bar code design needs to reside on only one location; Google’s vast network of servers. Google’s worldwide search engine dominance will ensure that the problem of multiple standards will be a problem no more.
But Wait, There’s More
GlyphReader will read not only any bar code, but also the Glyphs created by GlyphCreator, or any other type of image, thanks again to Neven Vision’s technology. These images can be photographs of a person, a landscape, a product, a billboard, a poster, a newspaper or magazine ad, a web page, a television screen, or any other type of subject one can imagine.
Here are the five basic categories of images that Google’s GlyphReader could read:
- Glyphs
- Glyphed Images
- Unglyphed Images
- Action Glyphs
- Bar Codes, including 2d Bar Codes
Glyphs made with Google’s GlyphCreator. A Glyph may or may not look like a typical 2d bar code such as the QR code used in Japan or the Beetagg that is becoming popular in Europe. The Glyph will possibly have an artistic flair that immediately identifies it as a Glyph, or it may have an identifying mark.
An image that is “glyphed” by being processed with Google’s Glyph software. This could be a photograph or line drawing, a photograph, a corporate logo, or product packaging. Basically any type of image. It might have an identifying feature that indicates that it has been “glyphed”.
An image. Any image. This image would not be “pre-glyphed”. When such an “unglyphed” image is sent to Google, Google will simply respond with the type of results (and of course ads) that users are already used to seeing with text searches. However, GoogleGlyph will remember the image and its results, as it intelligently expands and improves the accuracy of its mammoth image database and image recognition software.
Photographing these Glyphs will instantly either dial a phone number, send an email (to the cell phone user or to a company or third party), send an SMS (to the cell phone user or to a company or third party) or take the Android phone to a URL. One example of email usage might be a television program, where the viewer can vote Yes or No on a question. The screen would show two Glyphs. The viewer would photograph one of the Glyphs and, depending on which, it would automatically send an email to an address to register the appropriate affirmative or negative vote.
I mentioned 2d bar codes above, but what exactly are they? They’re square bar code-like symbols affixed to posters, newspaper/magazine ads, websites and, yes, sometimes even as tattoos on people. Millions of Japanese regularly use a type of 2d bar code called QRcodes, using their cell phones to take photos of that symbol. The 2d bar code reader on their cell phone interprets the code and either brings information to the cell phone, or takes the phone to a URL, to product info, to make a payment, or to buy a movie ticket.
This technology is catching on in Europe (with different codes - Beetagg and others) and has only recently appeared in the United States. Once in common use, the use of cell phone bar code readers will revolutionize advertising, sales, purchasing and information distribution. And that’s just the beginning.
More Features
- Location
- Designator
- AdGlyphs
- Social Networks
On GPS equipped mobile devices, all types of Glyphs might produce different results depending on the current location of the user.
All bar code Glyphs and “glyphed” images will likely be identified by a Glyph designator—an indicia—possibly a small Google “G” at one corner so people will know that they can photograph them using GoogleGlyph software.
Because Google acts as an intermediary or portal for all Glyph use, Google has the ability (I don’t know exactly how - that’s Google’s problem) to monetize the process with advertising. Google has already made billions monetizing text through AdSense/AdWords (and thousands and millions for advertisers and web publishers). Now Google will make billions more for itself and others by monetizing images.
Google will possibly work out a deal with cell phone carriers to give them a small piece of every ad click resulting from the use of Glyph. No doubt they will tie in Glyphs with their AdSense/AdWords features, so that web/print publishers get a small piece of the action, too.
Glyph will also be integrated with Orkut and the entire range of social networks that Google has announced. This Open Social network includes MySpace, LinkedIn, Six Apart, Friendster, Ning, and almost every social network except (so far) Facebook. Members of these networks will (as will everyone else) be able to create their own Glyphs. These simple symbols that are filled with data and connections to the Web open up vast new possibilities for social interaction and the world of dating.
Fantasy? Maybe
All this is theory and conjecture, of course. Simply something in an alternative future that may or may not ever exist. But it seems to me that there’s a very good case for it.
There’s certainly a lot more to come from Neven Vision technology than what Google has revealed so far with Picasa. And there’s certainly much more imagination and creativity in the Googleplex than I can dream up in this article.
And wouldn’t Glyph open up some exciting possibilities…?
Mick Winter (www.mickwinter.com) is looking forward to having his own Android phone, as well as developing apps for Android.
Glyph-related Patents
IMAGE-BASED CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISEMENT METHOD AND BRANDED BARCODES
United States Patent 20070159522
Neven, Hartmut
Abstract: Content media having images associated with remotely stored information are provided with barcodes marked with indicia to indicate a source of the information. In this manner, a user, having, for example, a camera phone, will become aware that the particular content medium has images that can be scanned to retrieve additional information (from the remote information store) via their camera phone.
IMAGE BASE INQUIRY SYSTEM FOR SEARCH ENGINES FOR MOBILE TELEPHONES WITH INTEGRATED CAMERA
United States Patent 20050185060
Neven Sr., Hartmut
Abstract: An increasing number of mobile telephones and computers are being equipped with a camera. Thus, instead of simple text strings, it is also possible to send images as queries to search engines or databases. Moreover, advances in image recognition allow a greater degree of automated recognition of objects, strings of letters, or symbols in digital images. This makes it possible to convert the graphical information into a symbolic format, for example, plain text, in order to then access information about the object shown.
MOBILE IMAGE-BASED INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM
United States Patent 20060240862
Neven Sr., Hartmut
Neven, Hartmut
Abstract: An image-based information retrieval system, including a mobile telephone, a remote recognition server, and a remote media server,the mobile telephone having a built-in camera and a communication link for transmitting an image from the built-in camera to the remote recognition server and for receiving mobile media content from the remote media server, the recognition server for matching an image from the mobile telephone with an object representation in a database and forwarding an associated text identifier to the remote server, and the remote media server for forwarding mobile media content to the mobile telephone based on the associated text identifier.
IMAGE-BASED SEARCH ENGINE FOR MOBILE PHONES WITH CAMERA
United States Patent 20060012677
Neven, Hartmut
Neven Sr., Hartmut
Abstract: An image-based information retrieval system is disclosed that includes a mobile telephone and a remote server. The mobile telephone has a built-in camera and a communication link for transmitting an image from the built-in camera to the remote server. The remote server has an optical character recognition engine for generating a first confidence value based on an image from the mobile telephone, an object recognition engine for generating a second confidence value based on an image from the mobile telephone, a face recognition engine for generating a third confidence value based on an image from the mobile telephone, and an integrator module for receiving the first, second, and third confidence values and generating a recognition output.
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD INCLUDING RICH MEDIA TOOLS
United States Patent 20060064645
Neven, Hartmut (et. al.)
[Perhaps not directly connected with Glyph, but too cool not to mention.]
Abstract: The rich media communication system of the present invention provides a user with a three-dimensional communication space or theater having rich media functions. The user may be represented in the theater as a segmented video image or as an avatar. The user is also able to communicate by presenting images, videos, audio files, or text within the theater. The system may include tools for allowing lowered cost of animation, improved collaboration between users, presentation of episodic content, web casts, newscasts, infotainment, advertising, music clips, video conferencing, customer support, distance learning, advertising, social spaces, and interactive game shows and content.
