Computers get visual

Alan Cane

Published: June 11 2002 12:13 | Last Updated: June 11 2002 12:13

It's a bold assertion, but Image Metrics, a small Manchester-based company,
is claiming to be the first company to teach computers to understand images
rather than merely to process them. The software engine at the heart of its
technology, called Optasia, has applications across a broad spectrum of
disciplines,
from medical diagnostic imaging through security to animation for cartoons.

Companies at the top of the special effects tree like Industrial Light and
Magic are already mulling over Optasia's potential for their animated
adventures.
The Digital Animation Group, one of the UK's leading creators of avatars,
virtual personalities, has a stake in Image Metrics.

Nicholas Perrett, the company's marketing director, says Optasia is based on
advanced Baysian statistics, a flavour of probability theory. He explains
that
humans comprehend images because they have a preconceived picture of what
something should look like stored away in their brains - they don't confuse
cows
with horses.

Similarly, Optasia has a set of models which it compares to what it "sees".
Building the database takes only days or weeks, rather than the months and
years required using conventional computer vision methods and it can be
undertaken by non-experts, Perrett claims.

www.image-metrics.com


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