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Show HN: Crowdsourced Object Recognition

77 points by argumentum 14y ago

timmyd 14y ago
Hey Guys, Thanks for checking out our product. Been working hard on it to resolve the problem of object recognition and trying to produce something thats different to what's out there right now. If you know anyone that want's to help or get involved - love to speak to them or if you want an invite just let me know and I'll send it right now. Love your feedback on http://about.crowdsend.com http://about.crowdsend.com too if you can! Open to anything.
- argumentum 14y ago
  Btw, Tim's from Australia and has been staying at my house in Los Altos for a month or so. Gotten to know him well, great guy and fantastic front-end hacker. We've been working together putting some finishing touches on CrowdSend. I think it's going to be a winner.
jermaink 14y ago
good luck, mate! Loving to be behind the scenes :)
caublestone 14y ago
Great idea. Make a mobile app with an incentive so people can ID images to waste time. Focus on fine tuning an algorithm by checking against what people say and we could be on our way to making a really good image processor.
- timmyd 14y ago
  yeah thats in the works at the moment mate. great idea with the algorithm we're totally bootstrapped so just trying to get the web app sorted at the moment and then we'll get that out!
  - ewang1 14y ago
    you could do a game. i've seen people getting really addicted to those iOS logo ID games. for the incentives, just use something like kiip.
    - timmyd 14y ago
      yeah we've got a few ideas but at the moment we are just trying to figure out the best way to do it! thanks for the comment
dm8 14y ago
Congrats on launch! Not to spoil your party, there is another startup that is working in the similar space - www.luminate.com What will be the primary use case of your product?
- timmyd 14y ago
  What we solve - which we think is the biggest problem - is being able to ask what is inside an image. You as a user, can grab any image, from any website - and ask what is inside it and others can help you. That's what we believe is the biggest problem. The problem isn't arriving at an image and knowing - its arriving and not knowing. Luminate (and others) require the publishers to tag - however what if you arrive at some website (like the entire of instagram as one tiny example) and want to know what's in an image - where do you go ? Google - nope. That's just similar images they don't tell you any more. Luminate won't help you either. So that's the difference - luminate and everyone else doesn't actually help you solve a problem as you surf the web. Love to give you a preview if you're interested - we've done all this bootstrapped. We are only in beta so there will be bugs!
  - greendestiny 14y ago
    Not to mention rolling over something in luminate pops up a lightbox that obscures the image and has to be closed.
seagreen 14y ago
This is a really cool idea and I'm glad someone's doing it. Have you considered talking to Amazon about it? It's definitely in their best interest for products to be easily identifiable, and they're already doing work on it in a different way with Price Check[1]. Unfortunately there are other companies with a strong incentive to make identifying specific products as difficult as possible[2]. And clothing companies have never been good about sticking with a specific product anyway. I got a Ralph Lauren suit last year that I liked enough to consider ordering another one, but they had already stopped making that style. Maybe dresses or something I could understand, but men's suits? If you can't buy a product even if you can identify it, then what's the point? Do you have any thoughts on how to get around this problem? One idea that comes to mind is that you could use your data to build a ranking of how long clothing companies (or any companies) stick with their products. I'd certainly find it useful. Best of luck! [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.pricecheck https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.pri... [2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204624204577177242516227440.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020462420457717...
- timmyd 14y ago
  thanks for the comment mate! yeah - we currently actually work with a heap of retailers and we do match to where you buy them - we've around 90 or so at the moment (love to get your thoughts on http://about.crowdsend.com http://about.crowdsend.com). publishers can do a bunch of stuff too - but we think the bigger problem rests with the community than with publishers. basically once a product's been identified then we match it to a bunch of retailers if we can find it!
  - greendestiny 14y ago
    Love the idea, sent through a beta invite request. Not sure about the fade in on the images on about.crowdsend I find it a bit annoying combined with scrolling - its like having two transitions on a powerpoint slide.
    - timmyd 14y ago
driverdan 14y ago
As a (mostly) non-consumer myself using this doesn't really interest me but I can see how the Pinterest crowd would love it as well as the businesses who make the products. Do you automate some of the product identification or is it only by users?
- timmyd 14y ago
  At the moment - we are just focusing on getting data together from users which has been a fair bit of work. We do some automation in the background - but we're bootstrapped so its all what time we have! We think being able to ask what something is and getting a response from a community is something thats a bit different in the image space.
frozenport 14y ago
I dragged a box over the ipod demo image and tried to identify as an ipod. It told me it couldn't find anything called "ipod"?
- timmyd 14y ago
  yeah sorry - the server is getting smashed at the moment - have to free up some mem! but let me know what browser so i can double check ?
mef 14y ago
Interesting product. What's the incentive for someone to do the research to figure out what's in an image?
- timmyd 14y ago
  yeah at the moment we are doing a point based system where user gets discounts from retailers. unsure what will work best but its something that we going to play around with until we find what works best
- kwekly 14y ago
  I deal a bit with arty types, and they tend to pride themselves on being able to identify products, along with designers and quoting how many hundred $'s something "costs" I think it's a bit like nerds and bragging rights in being able to produce good explanations for difficult technical questions. Along that line of thinking, perhaps a stackoverflow karma / community recognition style system might be enough.
hayksaakian 14y ago
I really Google doing something like this a long while ago. They turned it into a game of some mind. (My memory fails me)
- timmyd 14y ago
  Yeah but we are a bit different in our approach and the way we are trying to resolve it :)
neya 14y ago
Really cool concept mate, congrats! Keep up the good work. One small feedback - The photo of the guy on the frontpage looks more like Justin Beiber (I thought it was him, for a second) :D Other than that, everything else is perfect! Cheers, Good luck!
- timmyd 14y ago
  thanks mate :) been a lot of work to get here and its only the start!
keshansodi 14y ago
Good luck men, great idea.
- timmyd 14y ago
  thanks a heap. if you're after an invite just let us know
tled 14y ago
Awesome man, I would like to integrate it on my Website and my iOS/Android app. Hope you guys open the API soon. <3

77 points by argumentum 14y ago

Hey Guys, Thanks for checking out our product. Been working hard on it to resolve the problem of object recognition and trying to produce something thats different to what's out there right now. If you know anyone that want's to help or get involved - love to speak to them or if you want an invite just let me know and I'll send it right now. Love your feedback on http://about.crowdsend.com http://about.crowdsend.com too if you can! Open to anything.

argumentum 14y ago
Btw, Tim's from Australia and has been staying at my house in Los Altos for a month or so. Gotten to know him well, great guy and fantastic front-end hacker. We've been working together putting some finishing touches on CrowdSend. I think it's going to be a winner.

jermaink 14y ago

good luck, mate! Loving to be behind the scenes :)

caublestone 14y ago

Great idea. Make a mobile app with an incentive so people can ID images to waste time. Focus on fine tuning an algorithm by checking against what people say and we could be on our way to making a really good image processor.

timmyd 14y ago
yeah thats in the works at the moment mate. great idea with the algorithm we're totally bootstrapped so just trying to get the web app sorted at the moment and then we'll get that out!
- ewang1 14y ago
  you could do a game. i've seen people getting really addicted to those iOS logo ID games. for the incentives, just use something like kiip.
  - timmyd 14y ago
    yeah we've got a few ideas but at the moment we are just trying to figure out the best way to do it! thanks for the comment

dm8 14y ago

Congrats on launch! Not to spoil your party, there is another startup that is working in the similar space - www.luminate.com What will be the primary use case of your product?

timmyd 14y ago
What we solve - which we think is the biggest problem - is being able to ask what is inside an image. You as a user, can grab any image, from any website - and ask what is inside it and others can help you. That's what we believe is the biggest problem. The problem isn't arriving at an image and knowing - its arriving and not knowing. Luminate (and others) require the publishers to tag - however what if you arrive at some website (like the entire of instagram as one tiny example) and want to know what's in an image - where do you go ? Google - nope. That's just similar images they don't tell you any more. Luminate won't help you either. So that's the difference - luminate and everyone else doesn't actually help you solve a problem as you surf the web. Love to give you a preview if you're interested - we've done all this bootstrapped. We are only in beta so there will be bugs!
- greendestiny 14y ago
  Not to mention rolling over something in luminate pops up a lightbox that obscures the image and has to be closed.

seagreen 14y ago

This is a really cool idea and I'm glad someone's doing it. Have you considered talking to Amazon about it? It's definitely in their best interest for products to be easily identifiable, and they're already doing work on it in a different way with Price Check[1]. Unfortunately there are other companies with a strong incentive to make identifying specific products as difficult as possible[2]. And clothing companies have never been good about sticking with a specific product anyway. I got a Ralph Lauren suit last year that I liked enough to consider ordering another one, but they had already stopped making that style. Maybe dresses or something I could understand, but men's suits? If you can't buy a product even if you can identify it, then what's the point? Do you have any thoughts on how to get around this problem? One idea that comes to mind is that you could use your data to build a ranking of how long clothing companies (or any companies) stick with their products. I'd certainly find it useful. Best of luck! [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.pricecheck https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.pri... [2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204624204577177242516227440.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020462420457717...

timmyd 14y ago
thanks for the comment mate! yeah - we currently actually work with a heap of retailers and we do match to where you buy them - we've around 90 or so at the moment (love to get your thoughts on http://about.crowdsend.com http://about.crowdsend.com). publishers can do a bunch of stuff too - but we think the bigger problem rests with the community than with publishers. basically once a product's been identified then we match it to a bunch of retailers if we can find it!
- greendestiny 14y ago
  Love the idea, sent through a beta invite request. Not sure about the fade in on the images on about.crowdsend I find it a bit annoying combined with scrolling - its like having two transitions on a powerpoint slide.
  - timmyd 14y ago

driverdan 14y ago

As a (mostly) non-consumer myself using this doesn't really interest me but I can see how the Pinterest crowd would love it as well as the businesses who make the products. Do you automate some of the product identification or is it only by users?

timmyd 14y ago
At the moment - we are just focusing on getting data together from users which has been a fair bit of work. We do some automation in the background - but we're bootstrapped so its all what time we have! We think being able to ask what something is and getting a response from a community is something thats a bit different in the image space.

frozenport 14y ago

I dragged a box over the ipod demo image and tried to identify as an ipod. It told me it couldn't find anything called "ipod"?

timmyd 14y ago
yeah sorry - the server is getting smashed at the moment - have to free up some mem! but let me know what browser so i can double check ?

mef 14y ago

Interesting product. What's the incentive for someone to do the research to figure out what's in an image?

timmyd 14y ago
yeah at the moment we are doing a point based system where user gets discounts from retailers. unsure what will work best but its something that we going to play around with until we find what works best
kwekly 14y ago
I deal a bit with arty types, and they tend to pride themselves on being able to identify products, along with designers and quoting how many hundred $'s something "costs" I think it's a bit like nerds and bragging rights in being able to produce good explanations for difficult technical questions. Along that line of thinking, perhaps a stackoverflow karma / community recognition style system might be enough.

hayksaakian 14y ago

I really Google doing something like this a long while ago. They turned it into a game of some mind. (My memory fails me)

timmyd 14y ago
Yeah but we are a bit different in our approach and the way we are trying to resolve it :)

neya 14y ago

Really cool concept mate, congrats! Keep up the good work. One small feedback - The photo of the guy on the frontpage looks more like Justin Beiber (I thought it was him, for a second) :D Other than that, everything else is perfect! Cheers, Good luck!

timmyd 14y ago
thanks mate :) been a lot of work to get here and its only the start!

keshansodi 14y ago

Good luck men, great idea.

timmyd 14y ago
thanks a heap. if you're after an invite just let us know

tled 14y ago

Awesome man, I would like to integrate it on my Website and my iOS/Android app. Hope you guys open the API soon. <3