Google search by image

Last week Google introduced Search by Image feature. There were a handful of web-sites that suggested content-based image retrieval in the Internet, but the quality was low, as I blogged earlier. I repeated the queries TinEye failed at, and Google image search found them both! It found few instances of Marion Lenbach (one of them from this blog, which means the coverage is large!), and I finally remembered the movie from the HOG paper: The Talanted Mr. Ripley.

So, from the quick glance Google finally accomplished what the others could not do for ages. Why did they succeed? There are two possible reasons: large facilities that allow building and storing large index efficiently, and a unique technology. The former is surely the case: it seems the engine indexed a large portion of the photos in the web. I cannot say anything about the technology: there is nothing about that among the Google's CVPR papers, so one need to do black-box testing to see which transformations and modifications are allowed.

Google seems to expand to the areas of multimedia web, even where the niche is already occupied. Recently they announced their alternative to grooveshark, the recommendation system for Music beta (the service is unfortunately available on invitation basis in the US only). The system is not based on collaborative filtering (only), they (also) analyse the content. I planned to investigate this area too, but given that it is becoming mature and thus not so alluring. I am eager to see if the service will succeed. After all, Buzz did not replace Twitter, and Orkut did not replace Facebook.

Back to School

Ben Field

Ben is the recently appointed manager of Sport Pembrokeshire at Pembrokeshire County Council

With schools across Wales being asked to get their pupils to fill in the national School Sport Survey, Ben describes his work so far to sell the benefits of the project.

When details of the survey came out I could certainly see the benefits of having the data – both for my team working in sport and the schools themselves – and I wanted to make sure we did our bit to sell the benefits.

We started off with an e-mail from the Director of Education to all our schools. This wasn’t a directive but an opportunity to stress the importance and encourage them to take part. It was good to have that endorsement from the Director.

I met with the Education Advisors for the School Improvement Teams to talk them through the detail and gain their support.

I presented to Primary School Headteachers while my Head of Service presented to Secondary Headteachers.

All Sport Pembrokeshire staff work in some form or another with local schools – peripatetic PE tutors, 5x60, Dragon Sport and sport specific officers – and they are key to reminding schools about the survey and giving that extra encouragement.

We’ve got a newsletter that goes out to schools and the public and we’ve included a full page article on the survey in our current edition.

I’m maintaining regular contact with Headteachers via phone and email. If the school has completed or started the survey I’m e-mailing them to make sure I thank them for their support. And also trying to build up some healthy competition.

The key message I’ve been selling is around the well-being agenda and the information that will be made available for schools to use, particularly as evidence for any impending Estyn Inspections.

I’ve had some constructive feedback about the questions, the terminology and the length of time it’s taken some pupils to fill in.

With the data that we could have, I certainly hope the end will justify the means.

For more information on the School Sport Survey visit: http://www.sportwales.org.uk/research--policy/our-surveys/school-sport-survey-2011.aspx

hope y'all have an awesome weekend....however you plan on spending it!!

*images courtesy of you are my fav, moth design, everly true, where the sidewalk begins, styleswoon

Drug Cessation and Weight Gain

Commenter "mem", who has been practicing healthcare for 30+ years, made an interesting remark that I think is relevant to this discussion:

Recovering substance dependent people often put on lots of weight and it is not uncommon for them to become obese or morbidly obese.

This relates to the question that commenter "Gunther Gatherer" and I have been pondering in the comments: can stimulating reward pathways through non-food stimuli influence body fatness?  

It's clear that smoking cigarettes, taking cocaine and certain other pleasure drugs suppress appetite and can prevent weight gain.  These drugs all activate dopamine-dependent reward centers, which is why they're addictive.  Cocaine in particular directly inhibits dopamine clearance from the synapse (neuron-neuron junction), increasing its availability for signaling.
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Oh my....i'm still obsessed with a good monogram.  seriously, can't get enough of them.  so much so that i once thought i wanted to buy a commercial monogramming machine and open a store. i googled it and found out that they cost as much as a very nice car.  and then i could not ignore reality- i have never even sewed a button on a shirt...how was i suppose to operate a machine?!!  but i still can be obsessed with them.  i need those chairs in my life.

*images courtesy of bippity boppity boo, number four eleven, merrill curtis, and my napkins from gramercy