One of the best aspects of Google Photos is the automatic face recognition grouping feature, making it easy to find friends or pets without digging through your gallery. And while it’s always worked well, it’s getting powerful enough to recognize the back of heads, even if that head is covered with a hat.
The company talked a ton about AI (artificial intelligence) at its developer event earlier this year, but it has used AI and machine learning for years on various projects. While Google has faced lawsuits over Photos’ facial recognition, it’s not a new feature, but AI is certainly making it better.
A new report from AndroidAuthority talked about how Google Photos can now detect the back of heads and put it to a face. The report mentions how Photos recognized countless photos of the back of the writer Rita’s husband’s head, then successfully tagged him to a grouping.
I’ve always been amazed at how well Google Photos recognized faces, but this is on another level. After digging around in my own gallery, it looks like there’s far more to Google’s magic than that. I took images from behind my fiance while she wore a beanie, and Photos still successfully tagged her face.
Google’s AI can’t even see her head or hair, but still got it right. I can only assume it’s combining previous images, the outfit, her long blonde hair, and other factors, making a model of that person (or that event), and then grouping them successfully. Either way, Google Photos is getting excellent and recognizing who is who, even when it can’t see a face.
In some cases, Google’s AI and machine learning might recognize the face, but it isn’t sure, so there will be a little button that says, “face available to add,” letting you verify it first. Even more impressive is that the software returned to previous photos from several years ago and successfully tagged people.
This is undoubtedly helpful, but some people might be freaked out. So, if this all sounds a bit creepy, remember that you can disable facial recognition in Google Photos.
via AndroidAuthority
