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Image Search Goes Tagless
By Elizabeth Svoboda

Online image search has traditionally relied on text tags and a keen eye. But new technologies can help find pictures of your boyfriend, Leonardo DiCaprio or even a perfectly worn-in pair of jeans -- regardless of the photograph's lighting or angle.

Polar Rose has developed tag-free image search for faces in photographs. Jan Erik Solem, the company's chief technology officer, says the facial-recognition technology could, for example, identify Paris Hilton whether she's in a still from a sex video or in a more demure shot from the Academy Awards ceremony.

"With an ordinary image, the computer only sees an assortment of pixels," Solem says, "so if you turn your head in a photo or change the lighting or other conditions, the computer won't recognize you."

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