Friday 9 November 2012

Not quite there: fun with Google Image recognition and search

There's something playful about the way researching one topic often leads to new insights on another.  While attempting to track down copyright information for a test file, I decided to try out some of Google's newer image recognition and search capabilities, such as the browser-based Google Image and the mobile app, Google Goggles.

The underlying idea is pretty wonderful – instead of trying to think up just the right search terms, simply snap a picture or upload an existing image, and the magic of Google will find images “like” it.   This could be great tool for designers who may be looking for similar but slightly different images to fit into a specific design project.  Could the promise of algorithmic image recognition reduce the need to apply keywords and descriptions to our images?

Thursday 1 November 2012

metadata - use it or lose it

Over this fall I have recruited representatives from our participating units who are working with me to simplify our digital asset management system.  Not surprisingly, we have no shortage of ideas for new functionality or updates!  However, our challenge has been to develop recommendations that we could implement ourselves, without requiring expensive customizations.  We focused on simplifying the descriptive metadata that must be applied to assets when importing.
 
As discussed in my previous post, there are principles we can apply when considering which metadata fields to hide or remove.  Streamlining also means reworking the remaining fields so they are easier to use for all groups.  Here's a few more general principles derived from experience and information standards:
  1. Use it or lose it
  2. Mutual exclusivity
  3. Use the language of your users
  4. Use terms important to organizational context
Creative Commons License
This work by Jonathan Studiman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License.