drag2share: This Tech Wants To Make Your Phone More Human-Like, And It's Coming Soon
source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/MxlX2o-XSqY/human-like-tech-for-phones-2014-3
Smartphones already use a variety of different technologies to make everyday tasks easier. Don't know where you're going? Fire up Google Maps or any other navigation app that can leverage your phone's GPS sensor. Need to know the answer to a quick question? Just whip out your phone and ask Google or Siri.
But current technology can only take us so far, according to a professor at Purdue University. Researchers at Purdue are working on technology that could essentially turn your smartphone into a third human-like eye. The tech, which would use a system of algorithms known as deep learning, could enable your smartphone's camera to immediately understand any object it sees.
Eugenio Culurciello, an associate professor in Purdue University's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering who is involved in the project, said the technology would work similarly to that shown in the movie "Her."
"It would give [smartphones] that capability," Culurciello told Business Insider, specifically referencing a scene in which Joaquin Phoenix's character takes out his phone ("Samantha" voiced by Scarlett Johansson) to show it the world around him. "The phone would see the way [Joaquin Phoenix] sees ... that's basically what we're really going for here."
According to Culurciello, the technology would dig deeper than current augmented reality apps and contextual computing. Apps such as Nokia City Lens, for example, can use your smartphone camera's viewfinder to tell you which building is in front of you or which restaurant is nearby. City Lens does that by pulling information from Nokia Maps and overlaying it over your environment. With the technology that Purdue is researching, however, Culurciello says there would be no server communication required. The phone would simply understand the image it's seeing, just like you would.
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