Google Photos Magic

The new Google Photos is a much needed improvement over the prior version. My favorite feature is what I call “magic” but they call it something else. Every once in a while I will get a notification that Google has created a new enhanced version of a photo I took and when I click on it, the photo is much improved.

But yesterday, they took this magic to another level.

We arrived in Vienna late in the day, checked into our room, I opened the door to what looked like a balcony, it was, I stepped out and shot three pictures of our view. That was that.

A few minutes later I got a notification that Google had enhanced the photos and when I clicked on it, Google had stitched all three into this panorama.

panorama

Now there is nothing special about stitching three photos together to make a panorama. That technology has been around for years.

What is special is that a machine decided that my three photos were suitable for making a panorama and did it for me.

In case you are curious, here are the three photos I took.

shot 1shot 3shot 2

That green roofed building is the Opera House. We are going to see an Opera there tonight. It’s not our normal thing to go to Opera but we figured it would be a nice thing to do in Vienna.

#Blogging On The Road#mobile#Photo of the Day

Comments (Archived):

  1. Pete Griffiths

    Impressive. I’m about to put it to the test with a few thousand photos.

  2. Bradley Horowitz

    Thanks Fred. Glad you liked it! We’ve got more “magic” up our sleeves… 😉

    1. awaldstein

      Any of that magic going to tag and search?Still a grind to find the photos we know we’ve taken for a certain situation–like today-wanted to share a few on Vienna and don’t have the bandwidth to search them out manually.

      1. Twain Twain

        Google, Baidu, FB, Microsoft et al are moving forward from pure text tag+search.The level of object visual recognition with applied Machine Learning is such that MS does this.Not that the visual data extraction is perfect yet because the training set of images doesn’t have all the context it needs yet.But image recognition and extraction is what the AI labs of the big tech players have been working on for several few years now.

        1. Twain Twain

          This is why everyone’s acquiring Machine Intelligence knowhow, including Twitter on Whetlab.

        2. William Mougayar

          is that the same tech as in the app that guesses your age from your photo?

          1. Twain Twain

            The age-guessing app is slightly different but, yes, applies similar image recognition tech.It borrows from something the beauty and skincare companies like Shiseido and L’Oréal have had for several years; the ability to calculate depth of shadows, skin tone, UV exposure and micro-lines — albeit via imaging machines the size of a desktop PC.There’s an app out of Palo Alto that can do image recognition Machine Learning… just with your iPhone. The team co-founded Zazzle and what they’re doing is, frankly, super-cool stuff!Great innovation in applied ML.

          2. Prokofy

            I ran a photo of my two children, at the time they were ages 5 and 3, on the first day of school, when my son was not at all thrilled to be going to school, and my daughter was not happy that she wasn’t going, too. The result of running it through this age thing is they came out like ages 50 and 30, I guess frowns will do it.

        3. awaldstein

          Great response and thanks.So simply–is there anything I can use now if I use iPhoto.To me search and find is the killer app to make me change platforms for photos as smart archiving is simply not there anywhere.

          1. Twain Twain

            iPhoto has a Faces and Places feature where the user can tag people and places. Once it’s been tagged, iPhoto auto-sorts and surfaces other photos containing the same face/place and asks the user to confirm if the tag is right. Then it batches the photo with the other corresponding tags.Apart from the SIRI acquisition, Apple has been relatively under-the-radar in Machine Learning in recent years compared with Google, Baidu, FB, MS, IBM Watson and Amazon.They haven’t published the same volume of research papers.However, I expect this to change because over this last month they’ve posted for 110 Machine Learning positions at Apple in Santa Clara.LOVE Apple and there are things in its patent pipeline I’m SO EXCITED by as a product person and developer.

          2. scottythebody

            Flickr seems to be leading in terms of organization and useful magic — auto tagging, etc.Google is leading in “wow, I didn’t think of that” magic. I like the “stories” feature, but a lot of the animation stuff is just a by-product of having an iPhone with HDR and taking 2-3 shots.Really interesting stuff going on in photos right now (FINALLY!) after Flickr slipped and Facebook, who has more photos than anyone, faltered.

      2. kenberger

        you haven’t seen? Go to https://photos.google.com/ on laptop, or the new photo app on android, and assuming you have albums uploaded there over time, you can even search for things that predates GPS, etc. Search for a place, thing, verb, etc, such as “dog” or “poodle” or “holding”.For example, I search for “Tokyo”, and it somehow shows not just my recent photos where I had location turned on in my android or iphones, but also pix I took on a Japan trip in 2000! Those old pix were taken with digital casio and sony cameras. They certainly did not contain any location hardware.Dave McClure was on that trip too. If I search either his name (it also tracks you as you age) or Tokyo or Japan or karaoke, I find these pix going way back.Now THAT’s magic.

        1. awaldstein

          Truly.sSo as an iphone iphoto user I can simply upload itunes or is there a smarter way to integrate or stop using iphoto with my hardware devices?

          1. kenberger

            there are tons of ways out there to migrate from iphone and mac to android and google.for Samsung devices, this is the tool to use: http://www.samsung.com/us/s…you’re probably best served with a desktop solution. I wouldn’t know which, off the top of my head.

          2. scottythebody

            I’m using both the Google photo uploader and the Flickr photo uploader (apps in the store). Turn on auto upload and behold: all the stuff ends up in the cloud. Was trying Amazon’s, too, but it was unreliable. Google and Flickr are better.

          3. awaldstein

            will be done!thanks.

        2. Prokofy

          That’s scary. I didn’t know Google could geolocate pictures that weren’t taken on its Android, but on an iPhone, but I guess it slurps up the same metadata. It is highly weird to see it find all the people and put them in one category, and then place the photos like “Seoul” or “East Rutherford, NJ”. It shows you pictures you even forgot you had.I don’t want Google to remember and sort things. I want to sort them. I can see this would be useful for work.

          1. kenberger

            Yes. It is certainly true that some of the best inventions bring with them both wonderful benefits– and potentially tragic consequences.I’m reminded of Santos Dumont, someone credited as being involved in inventing aviation. He killed himself when he observed the invention being used for warfare.

      3. Frank Traylor

        I think the greatest magic is in search. I had heard that google can analyze photos and content to provide context for search. I thought I’d try it out.I’m in the cannabis biz in Colorado. I have a number of photos from tours of marijuana grows. Below is an example. I searched for “marijuana” and the search brought up the photos of the grows. I searched for “pot” and the same thing. Now that’s magic.

    2. William Mougayar

      Is there more coming in the Photo Assistant? I’ve just discovered that!

    3. Milan Mody

      Bradley , missing the auto enhance feature though.

    4. Rachael

      do this real time after a user takes one photo and Google captures two more from a data base, and I’ll be impressed.

  3. Neeraj Shukla

    This is really interesting :)I can only wonder how much tech has gone into it to enable all of this!

  4. LIAD

    I had 2 ‘wooah google is smart and kinda freaky’ moments yesterday.1. Dictated an email and used the words ‘ten to 9’ – google transcribed it as 8:502. Added an appointment for the dentist. Google calendar auto added dentist related clipart to the entry.Neither required earth shattering AI but both made things feel human and a little magical.

    1. fredwilson

      yeah, the calendar stuff is greati wrote a post about that a while agohttp://avc.com/2015/05/feat…

      1. Cam MacRae

        Mostly great.I took a flight on Friday which was correctly added to my shared calendar, but Google incorrectly inferred I was staying in a particular hotel based on an ad included in the receipt and automagically added that as well. Luckily my better half is of the trusting variety.

    2. LE

      Dictated an email and used the words ‘ten to 9’ – google transcribed it as 8:50Perhaps they could assign some of that staff to google voice which has absolutely horrible translation.And yes, it’s almost always this bad… click to enlarge.

    3. LE

      Google calendar auto added dentist related clipart to the entry.That in a nutshell is what is bad about google. They are totally shiny ball. Something like that gets worked on because it’s fun and cool. Something major (like google voice translation) gets totally ignored.

  5. Marc Verstaen

    Very interesting. This implies so many thing things at the infrastructure layer. On the Vienna topic, you really should go to the Kunst Museum. If I remember correctly they have an amazing Vermeer (well, all Vermeer paintings are amazing) and a ridiculously large collection of Bruegel. Enjoy.

    1. fredwilson

      ooohvermeeri’m going there!

  6. Rodrigo Tello

    “What is special is that a machine decided that my three photos were suitable for making a panorama and did it for me.” Quite deep.What are the future applications that we’re going to take out from this technology, more than just appreciating the world in panoramic through mobile screens?Not being cynic, just trying to imagine the possibilities.

  7. creative group

    Did you attend The Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper)? That appears to be the building in the photo.Did you visit the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Schoenbrunn Palace?

    1. fredwilson

      We are attending the Opera this evening and the museum is on our list for today

      1. Cam MacRae

        Yet another bloody Rigoletto production… But Ekaterina Siurina is an enchanting Gilda. Enjoy!

      2. Ana Milicevic

        Of all the museums in the museum quarter I enjoyed Sisi’s the most – it’s quirky and testament to a fantastic woman.Belvedere palace is a great way to spend a few hours especially on a nice day (I was last there in the dead of winter and it snow-rained pretty much my entire stay) but if you only have time for one I’d pick Schoenbrunn.

        1. awaldstein

          agree.

  8. creative group

    Vienna 8:20am 59 degrees fahrenheit and 81% humidity (yuk). Gotham Lady (She ismuch to refined to be referred by us as a girl) hair must be everywhere in that humidity. But at 59 degrees currently it will need to get around 75 degrees.Hopefully the venues will provide enjoyment.

  9. obarthelemy

    I like the auto-indexing a lot, though that’s probably not very new. It’s better at sorting my pics than I am ^^

  10. Pranav Dharma

    Fred – if you havent used the search function in goog photos – try it. Its simply awesome. You can search by subjects (beaches, mountains) etc. often times i will forget what i named the album, but i can simply search by the vacation type (skiing, beach) etc. and it shows me the relevant pics. Its freaking awesome.

    1. sigmaalgebra

      Okay, searching for images bykeywords/phrases.How about looking for images that you willlike for some interest you have in mind,maybe not a well defined or characterizedwell in words long term interest but oneof the moment?Suppose you don’t yet know what you wantor will like, and won’t know until you seeit?Maybe what you will really like is, say,http://upload.wikimedia.org…Now how to find that? Sure, if you knowthe name of the artist and the scene, butif not? And there’s a lot out there whereyou’ve never seen it and don’t know theartist or location or, really, anyappropriate keywords/phrases.And, not just for images but for recordedmusic and video clips?Even blogs? Right: They are basedessentially just on text, but there are100+ million blogs. So, type in a fewkeywords/phrases and get a list of 10million blogs. Now what?You want the most popular? Well, in musicthat would be the Top 40 — maybe you,like me, really like music but really hatethe Top 40? So, gross popularity is notalways so good.E.g., since you have posted at AVC.com,there is something about it you like.Okay, now what would the characterizingkeywords/phrases be? Suppose thoseactually would not match, not even withsynonyms, any of the content of AVC.com –which I suspect will be the case?To be more realistic, take yourdescription and try to find AVC.com if youdidn’t yet know, as for maybe 99+ millionblogs, that it existed and matched yourdescription? Now what?Similarly for long tail Web sites? Forthose, definitely gross popularity is notvery relevant.Skip to the bottom line — somehow have to’get at’, or get an approximation to, whyyou like, or the ‘meaning’ of, thecontent. How the heck to do that?

  11. sigmaalgebra

    If I were you, just from your pictures butfrom much more, I’d be really alot happier to be in Vienna thenIstanbul.There are people in Istanbul who really donot like Americans. Sure, likely anAmerican can come to Istanbul, stay 2-3days, and leave with safety, but Iwouldn’t want to try that again or make apattern of it within, say, onemonth.That’s where anonymity can mean safety; Iwant to keep my anonymity and, thus, insome situations, my head.Of course, much of my concern is based onignorance: I believe I have a good shotat understanding the culture ofVienna; to me, understanding Istanbulwould be like the back side of the moon.Vienna? Sure, to me, Mozart, the ViennaOpera, Sacher Torten, whippedcream, good coffee and chocolate,Schönbrunn Palace.Vienna? Sure, E. Fromm.Vienna? Sure, Franz Schmidt, cello playerfor Vienna opera conductor Gustav Mahler,Intermezzo to Notre Dame:https://vimeo.com/80715492There are several performances on YouTube,etc., but to my ear by far the von Karajanperformance of this Vimeo link is thebest. I bought a good copy and commonlyplay it while fixing dinner.I.e., from Victor Hugo’s The Hunchbackof Notre Dame, Quasimodo, CharlesLaughton:http://johngrant.org/wp-con…thinking of Esmeralda, i.e., the youngMaureen O’Hara:http://www.theblackmaria.or…in the movie, maybe 19?I really like classicalmusic, and by a lot more than a lot, andthat means Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Haydn,Handel, Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber,Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt,Johann Strauss, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner,Mahler, Richard Strauss, etc., and, thus,a lot in and not far from Vienna.

    1. Cam MacRae

      Superb choice. I absolutely love the intermezzo from Manon Lescaut from the same collection; I’m a sentimental fool.

      1. sigmaalgebra

        It appears that the whole opera is athttps://www.youtube.com/wat…

        1. Cam MacRae

          Wonderful! I have a much cherished copy. The newly restored/remastered Callas studio recordings released by Warner have to be heard to be believed.I also enjoy this 1954 recording (Tebaldi. Del Monaco, Molinari-Pradelli). Tebaldi recorded quite a number of Puccini operas in the 50’s which are well worth adding to your collection as the quality is remarkable.https://www.youtube.com/wat

          1. sigmaalgebra

            Apparently Fred and GG went to the operathere in Vienna, but otherwise itappeared that Fred was not a biggie operafan. So, if we discuss opera, then we caneither get Fred torqued off or, maybe,really interested. I have to believe thatGG catches on to opera right away, andthere have been suggestions that GG hassome influence on Fred! Considering someof the music Fred has indicated he listensto, he’s gotta like opera,especially some of opera that is supertough not to like right away.You are ahead of me:For Tebaldi, checking my file FACTS.DAT, IseeMelichar / Schubert, Millecherubini, 1971athttps://www.youtube.com/wat…and with that mille + 1;Puccini, Madama Butterfly, Unbel di vedremowith some good video athttps://www.youtube.com/wat…Can’t suggest that Fred listen to that:Tear your heart out for some days; need apallet of Man Sized Kleenex. The guy’sname was, what, Sharpless, right.That music meets the description of partsof opera being controlledscreaming, in that case the life ofugly agony that little girl was going tosuffer due to Sharpless abandoning her.Listening to these two pieces again justnow, yes, Tebaldi has a wonderful voice,and her artistic expressiveness –“communication, interpretation of humanexperience, emotion — is magnificent,crown jewel of civilization.More good things from Italy than justChianti and Barolo wine and rolled up,thin beef in tomato sauce!My wife and I saw Manon, likelyMassenet’s version of the story, atLincoln Center, of course, by either theMet or the NYC Opera. As I recall thestory: The girl was on her way to schoolbut got off the carriage and, thus, offtrack in her life.Lesson: Don’t let girls travel longdistances alone. But every father shouldknow that; if not, then watch the operaand learn it.I saw too many girls not eager enough tostay on track — Manon, MadamaButterfly are not the only examples.Mother Nature has her interests, and sheis the first source of the “Enjoy now, paylater plan.”.So, now, with the whole Puccini ManonLescaut athttps://www.youtube.com/wat…I should review the story and listen!Since I like essentially everything elseI’ve heard from Puccini, I should likethis opera, too.A CD I have of Renata Scotto’s Un beldi vedremo is to my ear,unanesthetized open heart surgery with arusty butcher knife a cut or two moreintense than even Tebaldi’s.My notes show a Scotto live performance,with applause but no video, athttp://www.youtube.com/watc…but the CD version is even more intense –some of the most intense music I’ve heard.Thanks to YouTube’s version of arecommendation engine there is alsoMontserrat Caballe with orchestra, live,athttps://www.youtube.com/wat…The climax of the aria is especially gooddue to both Caballe and the orchestra.Don’t need to know even a single word ofItalian.This, tee hee, haw haw, stuff of lovemaking not meaning love can be dirty,lying, destructive, nasty stuff. Thepicture of the sad girlhttps://www.youtube.com/wat…is right on target.That was my view also the afternoon thegirl I knew, 13, when I was 15, said “Ineed to find someone I can trust”: Sheexpected me to lead us into the woods.I expected us, first, to talk, for atleast an hour, thoroughly cover allimportant details, have her to my home forSunday dinner to introduce her to myfamily as “my girl” and during the weekwhere she and I might cook, say, pizza forall of us, a going steady ring (syntheticblue sapphire, of just the right shade ona Tiffany setting) with an associatedparty, her in a pretty dress, with a cake,with a boy-girl pair statue on top shecould keep, etc., at least.Since I won’t be nasty to kittens andpuppies either, no way did I want to besome Sharpless having her — sweet,prettiest human female I ever saw inperson or otherwise — end up singingUn bel di vedremo.We had a misunderstanding (more generally,E. Fromm says we should have talked, andwe didn’t); I handled it poorly (I was 15and had yet to learn much about people orsee any opera at all), and we broke up.She got married right out of high schoolto a guy who was mean to her. I don’tknow that his name was Sharpless. Uglystuff.Fathers might let their daughters hearButterfly, Manon, Tebaldi, Scotto,and Caballe to underline some of the otherlife lessons parents try to impart. Theseold stories are all right up to date.Take her to {it Tosca/} and have herlearn about Scarpia — they do exist.Then to illustrate how nice things can andshould be, take her to {it Coppalia./}Or, sure, for a total sweetheart view oflife and love, Die Zauberflöte.The most important capital issocial capital, passing down life’sbest lessons from one generation to thenext. Indeed, such passing down isthe definition of education inDewey, Democracy and Education.Ah, I’ve got about 4000 more JPGs fromInstraGram to review! A tiny fraction ofthem are good. Back to it!

    2. Ana Milicevic

      Istanbul is a beautiful city with a richness of experiences that only places that have been cities for as long as it has can command. I hope you get to experience it in that light.Besides, b/w Vienna and La Scala my foot is heavily in Milan.

      1. sigmaalgebra

        Northern Italy, fine.The city of Istanbul — maybe fine.The city won’t cost me my head. But,since I’m an American, too many of thepeople in that city would like to separateme from my head. To be there at all,I’d want to be totally anonymous and, then, to maintain my anonymity, not bethere very often.I’m not joking: There are some people in Istanbul who really, really just hate Americans. My best choice is to stayaway. If I was on an airplane that madean emergency landing at Istanbul, mygoal would be to get out ASAP.

        1. Ana Milicevic

          As a fellow American I feel that way in many parts of our own country. Not once in Istanbul though. Especially if you’re flying Turkish – the lounge alone is worth the stay 🙂

          1. fredwilson

            OMG. The lounge. Never seen anything like it

  12. Devrin Carlson-Smith

    That is an incredible feature. Magic indeed

  13. awaldstein

    I fell in love with both Gemischter Satz as a way to make wine and the amazing Gruners from Nikolaihof on my first trip to Vienna.Those discoveries along side the amazing architecture, the modern art museums, the many vineyards within the city limits, and the small and very disturbing Holocaust memorial, create an indelible memory of that city.Enjoy.

    1. scottythebody

      The Rieslings from Kremstal and a few of the other “tals” are amazing, too.

      1. awaldstein

        Wonderful wine culture.Strong sense of the value of both organic and sustainable agriculture.And even within a strong tradition some really wonderful and whacky natural stuff being made.

        1. scottythebody

          True that. And the other amazing thing about it is the price and the scale. It’s just a fact that Austria produces only so much wine and almost all of it is consumed locally. Austrians want to drink Austrian wine and this leads to great value and, as you rightfully point out, a diversity of production styles and specialized little niches. I had no idea about any of this before I lived here. Austrian wine culture is definitely still under the radar — although I have noticed some popping up in menus and I have a friend in NYC whose mission it is to bring the Krems Valley wines to the people 😉

          1. awaldstein

            Lot’s of Austrian wine in NYC.Nikolaihof comes to my local shop every year to taste. Strong selection all over.Drank a truly crazy Austrian pet nat this weekend. Just terrific and bought a case for the summer.

          2. scottythebody

            I wonder if my friend has anything to do with that. He’s a sommelier and wine buyer.

    2. scottythebody

      Curious about the amazing architecture, though. I find it to be, of course, charming because it’s old-ish. But Vienna was so conservative during the boom times (1860-1914) that they virtually ignored the amazing architects that were training in the city and building wonderful things elsewhere. The Ringstrasse is one big neo-historical mish-mash that completely avoided even acknowledging the times. Almost all of the apartment building in Vienna were built during that time and are the equivalent of pre-fab during that era and completely missed any whiff of “modern” during that time. Don’t mean to sound rude; it really is beautiful here. However, I look around and see a tremendous opportunity that was missed. Imagine if Slovenians likeJoze Plecnik, Austrians like Otto Wagner, Klimt, Moser, Loos, Hungarians such as Arkay, Medgyaszay had a chance at the Ringstrasse buildings. It would be a world treasure.

      1. awaldstein

        You are more studied than I.I felt really comfortable with the intersection of people, transportation, architecture and culture.Just worked for me.

        1. scottythebody

          Very good point. It does all work well. Agree that the scale of prioritizing people over size of building, etc. is really comfortable. There’s a rule on height, which is very difficult to get around. Sidewalks are a priority and well-maintained. I read once that during the period I speak about that places either went London model or Paris model for urban development. London favored row houses and Paris favored multi-tenant apartment buildings. I have to say that, to me, the better urban fabric seems to have resulted from the Paris model (which doesn’t mean London isn’t one of my favorite places).

  14. scottythebody

    I can see my house!

  15. William Mougayar

    I’ve been a recent fan of Google Photos, but haven’t experienced this magic yet. This could be an interesting Fun Friday feature to play with.

  16. Twain Twain

    Well…Google can even make the machines “dream”…by applying Machine Learning within a narrow use case…* http://googleresearch.blogs…It’s called “Inceptionism” as an art form. Takes Escher and fractal art to another level!

  17. Twain Twain

    VIENNA FOODIE MUST==================Sacher Torte, one of the richest chocolate cakes in the world:* http://www.sacher.com/origi…My Dad took us to see Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ when I was 10 so opera’s been a habitual thing since childhood. My nephew, who’s 2, can tell when Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ gets played.Cardiff Singer of the World 2015 happened this past week:* https://www.youtube.com/wat…Nadine Koutcher of Belarus won. I managed to spot the winner, yay!

    1. fredwilson

      We are headed now to get one

  18. Tom Labus

    This is a great trip!!Great cafes to hang out in. Enjoy.

    1. awaldstein

      Yup–like Paris a great place to hang around.In some ways the wine selection is even better than Paris (blasphemy!) as there are just so many small producers doing great stuff naturally.

      1. Tom Labus

        Also, some of the best beers I’ve ever had. Love that city. History jumps out at you there. Are those wines available in the US?

        1. awaldstein

          Some.Honestly the most interesting wines I’ve been drinking lately come from Northern Cal, Portland area, the Canary Islands and my fave, Savoie.Strange mix I know.

  19. Milan Mody

    I had a similar experience , took 3 pics from different balconies in hong kong , Google figured it was the same skyline and stitched them …. mind blown

  20. John Revay

    Magical

  21. Joe Lazarus

    I often take several pics in a row of my one year old son since it’s hard to keep him still. Google Photos automatically combines them into animated GIFs, including some stabilization technique so he’s centered in the frame even though my hand might have moved between each shot. Magic.

  22. scottythebody

    Flickr is also digging in on this area and I hope it’s not too late for it. Great changes happening over there. The “Magic” camera roll organization is fantastic, as is the whole “camera roll” view and the ability to upload full resolution and RAW. I have well over a decade of photos in Flickr and I would love to get some new-found value out of my archive besides “off site backup”.

    1. Twain Twain

      Yahoo-Flickr team is doing even deeper ML image recognition and has an algorithm to rank photos by “aesthetics”:* http://www.technologyreview

  23. bsoist

    Received a notification a couple months back that surprised me because all notifications up until then had been for panos. This one was an animation.

  24. Ana Milicevic

    That’s really cool.I had a ‘magic’ moment the other day in Google Now — I had connected to a friend’s wifi and GN picked up his smart TV on the same wifi. It then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to browse what’s on and I was so magicked by the moment I forgot to take a screenshot.

  25. Victor

    +1 to opera in Vienna, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. And while America has great coffee all over now, the Vienna coffeehouses are still something special to experience, with the little silver trays etc.

  26. falicon

    Also interesting to see what parts of the photos it kept (most noticeable via the cars on the road in each; which, along with some basic logic like time & location between photos, also goes a long way in peeking into how they might be determining what is worthy of stitching together).

    1. LE

      how they might be determining what is worthy of stitching togetherMost likely the exif data is a good start. Would be interesting to test if you shut that off when taking a photo what they end up doing with it.https://photographylife.comhttp://www.digital-photo-se

  27. Rachael

    What the machine makes, can the machine take away? Who owns the copyright on the derivative work 🙂

  28. BillMcNeely

    a bit off target but an app I use at Three Six labs called Vugo decided to go Android first rather than iOS

  29. Ronnie Rendel

    And one day a machine will know how to communicate with my clients, follow up on the work assigned to my resources (check their code and do QA), bill the client, and do collections. Then I too will get to go to Vienna.

  30. kirklove

    Related from a while back outlining the herculean challenges that still lie ahead for advanced image recognition. Found the example and issues outlined fascinatinghttp://karpathy.github.io/2…

    1. Twain Twain

      * http://www.wired.com/2015/0…There’s also a HUGE knowledge gap about how our Perceptions work beyond the physics of optics which is how probability-based ML has tackled image recognition to-date.It’s a Holy Grail as vital for human and technological evolution as the discovery of fire, “earth is round”, gravity, flight etc.This is the “sexy stuff” that makes my brain and hands busy, :*).

      1. kirklove

        Neat

  31. pointsnfigures

    that’s pretty cool. one of the problems I have with photos is search. can never find them when I want them. perhaps its because most of my photos are on Instagram or Facebook. BTW, you got a US Treasury break yesterday. Dollar getting stronger relative to other currencies. The stock market will have to come out of its rabbit hole and notice soon.

  32. Yinka!

    Wow, I’m usually weary using too many tools/services from the same platform, but I might have to look into Google photos!You won’t regret taking in live music in Vienna. I love how it’s so woven into the city. One of the quirks I loved: while taking a course at the WU, a performance by a string quartet was a part of the opening assembly and closing meeting.Don’t miss:The great coffeehouses – Try a grand/classic ones like Cafés Demel/Hawelka/Central and a modern one like Das Moebel, a cafe/designer studio and the furniture and objects around are for sale. http://www.dasmoebel.atIce-cream parlour: Tichy – great family business, delicious product. Try their unique creations including Eis Marillenknödel or Haselnuss. Reumannplatz 13, Vienna 1100

  33. StevenWillis

    I had almost the same thing with a series of shots I did last winter. I took 3 pictures at a pond hockey tournament and when I got the message later, they had stitched together the 3 shots into a panorama. I was amazed at how well they put together the general outdoor landscape and people in the photos. They made it look intentional, when I just took a few random shots and didn’t really try to align anything.

  34. creative group

    Hopefully we can experience some of the beautiful locations of Vienna from the periscope app.

  35. Lucas Dailey

    Over the last couple days my spouse and I have been uploading family photos/videos to G Photos for storage and we’ve absolutely loved the magic it’s been making with them.Come for the free storage, stay because google helps you fall in love again.Incidentally I used to live on that street in Vienna. Great call on the Staatsoper. Spend some time in the old cafes. See Klimt in person. And get a slice at pizza bizi and a kasekrainer from a street vendor for me.

  36. Prokofy

    There’s another thing that Google is doing with your pictures which is putting them into “Stories”. It’s not clear how they are choose these “stories” but it may be just stitching everything on a day or at a location or something. The result is a little strange and I’m not interested in publishing any of these “stories.” However, if you could swap out pictures from the pre-made story, that might work.The other thing that Google does is I think in fact called “auto-magic,” isn’t it? They put twinkles into the photo. So if you have a Christmas tree, it sparkles.

  37. Bart Lewis

    That is pretty amazing. The one thing I don’t like about Google Photos is that they compress your photos. I was tempted to switch to them for my photo storage when they announced unlimited uploads, but I don’t want my pics crunched [if I am going to use the service for storage].

    1. Frank Fumarola

      100GB is $2/mo and 1TB is $10/mo, which seems pretty reasonable (only a little bit more expensive than Dropbox at $99/yr when paid annually for 1TB).

  38. Ben Floyd

    Amazing, hopefully in the future Magic will help us all utilize the thousands of photos we have stored more efficiently!