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Google Cloud Platform/YouTube

Soon robots will be able to see the world the same way we do

Recognising objects and figuring out if you’re happy or not will soon be the norm, and companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft are pushing it forward.

ROBOTS, DRONES AND APPS will be able to see the world around them and recognise objects and emotions thanks to a new tool from Google.

Google Cloud Vision API will allow any developer to create devices and software that will identify printed words and objects, and classify them into thousands of different categories.

It can also detect faces and recognise emotions like happiness, sadness and anger.

The technology is already used in Google Photos. Unless you tag a photo with specific terms like ‘orange’ or ‘dog’, a computer won’t be able to find them as it doesn’t look at the content of an image. Google Photos can recognise and pick out the main subject in photos and tag them as such.

Now it’s opening up that technology to other developers to use and develop their own systems around it. In one of the demos for the tool, a small custom robot can identify objects like money, a banana, and glasses.

It detects emotions by looking at the positions of the eyes, nose, and mouth, but Google says the tool does not allow them to recognise personal identities.

It already has competitors in the field like Microsoft pushing Project Oxford, its own computer vision and recognition tool that can detect emotions, recognise language and has speech recognition.

Also, Facebook has been working on its own image description technology, although that is more for users who are blind or visually impaired.

Google Cloud Platform / YouTube

Read: Wikipedia’s newest editors aren’t even human >

Read: You won’t truly get virtual reality until you try it out properly >

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11 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Al-Right
    Favourite Al-Right
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 10:26 AM

    I for one welcome our new Robot Overlord’s!

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SillyBilly
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 10:16 AM

    Remember a time when you had to walk the length of the village to use a phone, yeah!

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Roche
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 10:21 AM

    Google Glass for humans was deemed to be unacceptably intrusive.
    Designing it for machine use won’t?

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Stafford
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 1:37 PM

    That’s them f#*ked so

    1
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    Mute Liam Brophy
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 10:23 AM

    The dawn of terminator.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Murray
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 1:19 PM

    Johnnie 5 will soon be alive.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eoghan O' Donoghue
    Favourite Eoghan O' Donoghue
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 10:48 AM

    Google have introduced these in Ireland but found them to be uncooperative as after just two days they were seen on the streets protesting against water meters

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Cunningham
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 1:29 PM

    So its using the same recognition engine that tagged a photo of a black couple as gorillas. http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/google-photos-auto-tag-mistake-2193123-Jul2015/ They’re creating an army of racist robot overlords!!!

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gemma Shah
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 2:46 PM

    Lol, almost spat my coffee out reading that :)

    1
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    Mute Kevin Peyton
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 9:21 PM

    The image for this article is actually a ultrasonic range sensor – not a ‘pair of eyes’ :)

    1
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    Mute Permo Dermo
    Favourite Permo Dermo
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    Dec 3rd 2015, 4:06 PM

    Poverty, greed, violence, ignorance – the robots will blow a bleedin fuse

    1
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