|  |  |  | | | |  | |  | | 5/24/2008: Saturday Afternoon in the Garden | (Published by Keith Tuomi) | "There is nothing more difficult to take in
hand, more perilous to conduct, or more
uncertain in it's success, then to take the lead
in the introduction of a new order of things.
For the reformer has enemies in all those who
profit by the older order, and only lukewarm
defenders in all those would profit by the
new order, this lukewarmness arising partly
from fear of their adversaries...and partly
from the incredulity of mankind, who do not
truly believe in anything new until they have
had an actual experience with it."
-Niccolo Machiavaelli
| | 5/18/2008: Chicken or the Egg: Image Search Edition | (Published by Keith Tuomi) | I love magazines. Pretty much any topic will do, most often gravitating towards (shocking but true) photography or design.
Wallpaper is a great one, but
after a while I get this Edward Norton/Ikea/Fight Club feeling after
browsing article after article of amazing brushed aluminum kitchens in
glass cube houses in the Swiss Alps.
Recently I decided to go for something different (got a discount on it), Scientific American.
The content is hit-and-miss, probably most of the 'miss' being
accompanied by the sound effect of it flying right over my head.. but
there is some really accessible, well-written stuff in there that gets
the gears turning.
Today's reading (which also included a great article on digital photography forensics), included a feature titled 'Why Does Time Only Move Forward?'
Hm.. good question. In it, there's a lot of
quantum-physics-make-your-head-hurt theories. I'll spare you those tidbits. What did hit home was the picture included of an egg in three
states: solid, slightly cracked, and smashed in 10 different ways.
Key quote: "Entropy is the number of different microstates that
correspond to the same macrostate.. Thus, there are more ways to
arrange a given number of atoms into a high-entropy configuration than
into a low-entropy one."
Ok, and what does this have to do with image search? Well, after
plugging away at the linguistics behind our image matching technology
on Zymmetrical, this simple analogy hit like a hammer: the simple, intact egg is the
photo the searcher is looking for. Although it's easy to describe as
being one cohesive unit (idea) when we see it, the problem is the
universe and language in general prefers high-entropy i.e. more chaos.
What we are attempting to do is unbreak the egg, to work backwards in time like detectives putting together the clues of word snippets and user behaviour, to match image results to the vision the searcher already has in their mind. As we bring on more word-clustering techniques, the process is becoming less messy than trying to put an egg back together, and closer to the end goal of Lego-like simplicity; word + Search button = intended result.
Language is a tricky egg though, and multiple meanings behind the same word presents an immense problem for cataloging photos by words. Other agencies have tackled this by requiring Editors and Artists to hand-pick word meanings and offering searchers this data as 'Did you mean..' options to narrow their search path. Works, but force creative people to do too much monkey work and they will definitely fling poo.
While not ready even for our 'Labs' page yet, what we have in the works today is a way to reverse the direction of time and achieve "disambiguation" by semi-automatic means. Semi-automatic meaning like the Google PageRank algorithm, user behaviour creates adjustments in rankings and matches on an ongoing basis.
Take the search word 'Turkey'. Here are some disambiguations:
turkey n large gallinaceous bird with fan-shaped tail; widely domesticated for food
turkey n an event that fails badly or is totally ineffectual
turkey n flesh of large domesticated fowl usually roasted
turkey n a EuroAsian republic in Asia Minor and the Balkans; achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1923
turkey n a person who does something thoughtless or annoying
Now, throw in 10-40 extra keywords per photo that that have that core word assigned to them. Let's say you've got 'Istanbul', 'Muslim', 'Europe' associated already with a given photo. Do some ranking, a little clustering, throw in historical user click-through data, and what you have is a means to pick which one of these definitions suit the image in question, automagically. If it's the wrong choice, it will be reflected by the Back buttons pressed and sales not achieved by that search path.
Now, from my jaw-dropping test of the Beta TinEye from our fellow Canadian firm Idée this week, I will not pin this type of linguistics kungfu I just described as the future of image search, but for now it is a staple of searching and it needs to be as quick and definitive as an egg dropped on the floor of a designer Swiss kitchen. Stay tuned for our technique to work it's way onto the live site.
| | 5/12/2008: Zymmetrical Goes Social | (Published by Keith Tuomi) | After the request of some of our members, we have decided to go social and expand our reach.
Zymmetrical now has an official group on Flickr where anyone with an account can join, compare images, start or comment on a topic or just enjoy being part being part of the fastest growing community of midstock shooters.
You can see and join here : Zymmetrical group on Flickr
We have also created a page on Facebook. Linked to the main site, the Facebook page allows for anyone with an account to subscribe and receive news from within their account. You can become a fan and interact with other members of Zymmetrical who uses Facebook. Click on the link to join the Zymmetrical Facebook page.
We hope to see you there soon !!!
| | 5/9/2008: News from our Members | (Published by Keith Tuomi) | Often, there is more to our contributors' life then just taking pictures or submitting graphics. Most have another life that is as fulfilling as being being part of our community.
Take Creatista for example. Not only does he take great images and uploads them here ( he is starting to see his sales grow) but he is also a cineast. So much so that he is coming out with a feature documentary called "The Asphalt Gospel". It is about a 2,500 mile walk across America that took 5 months.
"I am a progressive Christian activist" says Creatista, "...meaning that I respect people of other faiths...or no faith...even though they may be on a different path than I am. I don't take the Bible as a literal truth but rather as a book written by humans, believe in the inclusion of people regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation...believe in care for the environment and the meeting of science and spirituality, etc. "
The movie document his thoughts. It will be released in selected theaters this summer in the USA at first and might gain international exposure. If you have a chance, go see it, if only to support Creatista's work.
You can watch a trailer here : The Asphalt Gospel Trailer
We would like to hear from you too if you are involved in any activity that you are proud of and would like to share with us. Send us an email.
| | 5/8/2008: News from our Editing Team | (Published by Keith Tuomi) | We have been busy working as fast as we can to get your images, graphics, video and fonts processed. The editing happens around the clock, 24/7 as we have free-lance editors all around the globe.
It is both a frustrating and captivating task. Frustrating because some images are almost good, but there is dust, a rough composition, an unwanted object or simply poor lighting. You feel that the artist is almost there but not quite yet.
Frustrating because some of you upload with no keywords. Obviously that delays the approval process. Some of you have been using our new editing tool (the 'Edit' button next to your submissions on http://www.zymmetrical.com/account/submissions/) and we really appreciate it.
Please be aware that updating your files with this tool will make your files become priority. A little bit like being upgraded to first class.
It is captivating because of the incredible graphics and photographs we are receiving on a daily basis. Not only from advanced amateurs but from pros who more and more, are joining Zymmetrical. It is captivating to see these images and graphics sell at the price point suggested. And finally, it is captivating to see how most of you do your research and upload files that the market need.
Keep them coming. We can't get enough. Upload one, upload 10 or 100. Send us CD, DVD's if you want. We are not scared. Quite the opposite. And keep those emails, comments and suggestions coming. we love them.
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