Comments on: Can Google Image Search Identify Insects?

By: Adam J-G

Adam J-G — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 01:49:34 +0000

Never make that face and pose again, Morgan. I have been scarred for life.

*enters cold shower with clothes on, sits down, and cries himself to sleep*

By: Zadi

Zadi — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 09:45:48 +0000

Google reverse image search works by making a mathematical model of the selected image and by reading the text associated with it (like:image name, attributes, etc.) to determine what the image is. Then Google compares that to other images in it’s database to find the best match.
I have also tried to other reverse image search engines (like: tineye) and found that they work pretty bad when compared to google.

By: Morgan Jackson

Morgan Jackson — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 01:50:34 +0000

That’s a really interesting idea Chris. I’ll see if I can find some time to try a couple pinned specimens from our collection, both those that are mimics/models, and those that should be easily recognized. Will report back if I find anything interesting!

By: Chris H

Chris H — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 00:35:26 +0000

What might be more interesting is can Google Image Search distinguish mimetic species from the species that they are trying to mimic…? Maybe some standard pinned specimen photos might yield a more standardised search (the algorithm seems to rely quite a lot on the background)? I just tried some hoverfly pictures with the search term “insect”, and it threw a lot of Hymenoptera back (along with lots of random stuff).

By: Susan Walter

Susan Walter — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 07:41:58 +0000

It could just be pixel matching. The photo with the shark probably looks much like other pictures of blokes with sharks. We had to have Streetview remove our section of the street from public view as it pixel matches our front door with pictures on our blog. That wasn’t too much of a problem, but it wasn’t too big a step to go from there to photos of the inside of our house. The ease of linking all the information up was a bit disturbing.