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Surprising Science

Miss Your Old Pet? This App Can Help You Find A Lookalike

PetMatch uses machine vision algorithms to match uploaded photos to those of pets who are available for adoption from shelters and rescue groups.
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What’s the Latest Development?


Animal lovers who are looking for a replica of a favorite pet — whether it’s a dog that left this earth long ago or a cat that’s been immortalized via the Internet — can now get help in the form of an app. Uploading a picture of the animal causes PetMatch to analyze and compare it against data provided by PetFinder, a service that collects information about adoptable pets from shelters and rescue groups. It then displays photos of those animals that most resemble the uploaded picture. A simple tap connects the user to the appropriate organization.

What’s the Big Idea?

PetMatch is the first consumer app from Superfish, a startup that since 2006 has been developing ways to help computers see like humans. Similar apps could soon appear that use machine vision technology to enable searches for furniture and jewelry in the same way PetMatch searches for animals. CEO and co-founder Adi Pinhas says the company’s goal is simple: “[T]o change the way people use the camera in their mobile.”

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

Read it at TechCrunch

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