Is There A Website That Can Identify An Image?

Is there a website that can identify an image? Yes, there is! Although many websites can do that, let’s focus on a particular one. First, let’s talk about Wolfram Alpha. 

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha has developed a website that can recognize any image you put to it. Also, Wolfram Alpha is a Wolfram Alpha LLC-developed computational knowledge engine or answer engine.

What Does It Do?

Wolfram Alpha is an internet service that calculates the answer from “curated data” provided by others. They do that rather than presenting a list of documents or web pages that may contain the answer. Yes, like what a search engine could.

It is a web-based application that aims to make all information computable and accessible. Asking Wolfram Alpha what planes are overhead is one of the most amazing facts you can do with it.

When you’re using your device, it will grab your current position and compare it to a database of planes. Including their height, angle, and even flight number and plane type.

Wolfram Comments

“It won’t always get it right, but I think it does a good job most of the time. And what attracts me the most is when it does make a mistake. The errors it makes are almost always human-like,” Wolfram said.

That’s a very accurate evaluation based on some quick testing. I put it in Half Dome at Yosemite National Park and was told it was “height,” while a snap of a gecko was labeled as a “night lizard.”

Also, it classified two bowls of ice cream as “frozen yogurt” and an image of a cow as “black Angus.” That’s close enough. 

It is interesting to see how all this progresses.

The Process And Purpose

Wolfram believes the effort might be beneficial in attempting to discover. As well as categorize vast sets of photographs. Others can use the technology to include picture recognition into their apps.

Wolfram claims that the system has “a few tens of millions” of pictures to train it and understand what was in it. He went on to say that this “seemed quite close to the number of differences. Perspectives of objects that individuals get in their first few years of existence.”

The system was also given difficult pictures. For example, cats in spacesuits, sloths wearing party hats, and even Chewbacca. These are all misidentified gracefully. But, it can now recognize around 10,000 different types of items.

Minor Defects

Wolfram points out that it still has trouble. For instance, distinguishing individual persons, art, and things that are not “actual daily stuff”. The new picture project joins Google Goggles and Amazon Firefly as fast identification tools.

Yet, it is notable for not attempting to sell you anything based on what it discovers. It also comes only a few months after Flicker’s new magic view.

Microsoft’s research site uses images to establish people’s genders and ages. Unlike Microsoft, Wolfram claims to maintain a thumbnail version of the photo after you’ve uploaded it.

So it may be shared with others and collects the photographs to keep its system trained, so be careful what you put in.