Google’s acquisition of Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, or PittPatt, is a pointer in the direction of visual search operations that the search giant wants to expand in future.
Google said in a statement: “The Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition team has developed innovative technology in the area of pattern recognition and computer vision. We think their research and technology can benefit our users in many ways, and we look forward to working with them.”
The features of image analysis, pattern recognition of PittPatt will now support Google’s image search, YouTube, Picasa and Goggles. Google acquired visual search company Like.com in August 2010 to help its foray into search and e-commerce domains. The latest acquisition is another pointer to its journey to integrate both images and e-commerce.
A notice on the website of PittPatt said its leadership team of three Ph.D. scholars began research in the area at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute in the 1990s and continued with the launching of Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition (PittPatt) in 2004.
“We’ve worked hard to advance the research and technology in many important ways and have seen our technology come to life in some very interesting products. At Google, computer vision technology is already at the core of many existing products (such as Image Search, YouTube, Picasa, and Goggles), so it’s a natural fit to join Google and bring the benefits of our research and technology to a wider audience. We will continue to tap the potential of computer vision in applications that range from simple photo organization to complex video and mobile applications.”
