Recognizing images is an impressive AI feat. But...
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| Remarkable desserts. What are they? |
But it's still an amazing thing... IF you know what works and what doesn't now. I'm afraid that means you have to stay up on what's going on in the world of image search. So let's dive into it...
Here are a few images that I'd like for you to identify--the key question for each is what's going on in this image? What is it? (And if you can, where is it?)
For each image I've given you a link to the FULL image (no sneaky reduction in resolution or removal of metadata, as our blogging tools tend to do). I recommend you use that image for your search.
1. The image above (the dessert display) is from a cafe. Can you figure out what KIND of desserts these are? Yes, I know you can read the labels, but these are from a particular region of the world. What kind of cafe is it? (Image link to full image.)
2. Here's a photo I took while on a walk in San Francisco the other day. What a strange, strange place! It's clearly supposed to have a statue on top of the pedestal. What happened here? Why is it bereft? (Image link)
3. Here's a great picture of a cloud that Regular Reader Ramon sent in for identification. What's going on here? (Image link)
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| P/C SRS Regular Reader Ramon |
4. This little bridge is in a lovely town somewhere in the world. Can you figure out where it is, and when it was built? (Image link)
The point of this week's Challenge is to give you a bit of familiarity with the different image reco tools. They're sometimes called "Reverse image search" tools, but as you'll find out, they have very, very different capabilities.
When you write in to let us know what you found, be sure to (a) tell us what tools you tried, (b) if they worked well, and (c) whether or not you find the answer believable.
Next week I'll write up my findings and summarize what everyone else found... along with a description of the tradeoffs involved in the different tools.
Keep searching!
Hello Dr. Russell.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to knowing what works. And to discover more tools. I use Google Lens as Search by image on my phone doesn't work anymore. Lens is great almost always. However sometimes it doesn't work ( maybe too generic photos)
The 1 Challenge looks very interesting in particular as your photo has plenty of desserts. I'm thinking we need to search by pieces? I'll visit the full image and start searching.
I'm trying Q1
DeleteFirst [reverse image search]
Then I tried searching on those with url. None of them worked ( maybe I did something wrong.)
Then I downloaded the image and tried. Of course I couldn't find the same. Results gave desserts but still nothing that helps me to find the answer.
Searched [Fatayer] and reading Wikipedia article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatayer
Also new for me was [milk cake]
I'm discovering and learning and also not solving the Q with the asked tool
Started with the photo in Google Lens. And then added San Francisco.
Delete1887 and was the center of the city. The head was lost in 1920's according to comments and photos there, And now there is a committee that decorates
https://www.facebook.com/groups/remembered/posts/2954807081387790/
[mt olympus san francisco statue history] to get more details
More details: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-05-99-forgotten/
About Q4
DeleteSearched using Google Lens. And then went to Google Maps to verify. I used pegman for the first time in years for that journey.
Pont Pinard in France
[point pinard bridge unkown facts]
Semur-en-Auxois was once home to a fortified 15th century castle
https://ourworldforyou.com/exploring-semur-en-auxois-in-france
[point pinard bridge construction date] to discover more
Tsk Tsk - these weren't really challenging. Each of them came up pretty instantly with Google Lens, to the extent that I made my life harder by looking for exact locations and time-stamps. I didn't need to use TinEye or Bing image search.
ReplyDeleteSo the image of the cakes is from https://sanaahousecafe.com/ - Sana's Cafe and show Yemeni deserts. The photo was taken at their 801 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607 location at 09:59:51on 5 November 2025 using an Apple iPhone 14 Plus. This came from https://fotoforensics.com/ which is a great tool for analysing images (and also verifying if an image has been edited).
You can also find similar images via Google Lens / Images e.g. https://sana-a-cafe-2.wheree.com/photos and lots more sites.
The Hilltop photo was uploaded / edited on 3 Nov but the location data is not included in the Exif data in the photo (so fotoforensics didn't give this). But Google did. Lots of similar images e.g. https://www.sfgate.com/living/article/Hidden-pockets-of-nature-in-San-Francisco-s-urban-14099743.php which states "The peak is an oddity, a small park with a tree-shrouded path circling a pedestal that in 1887 was built to hold a statue portraying the Goddess of Liberty," John King wrote in The Chronicle. "The arm holding the illuminated torch soon disappeared, supposedly the victim of sailors who found it a distraction when approaching the bay at night. The concrete eroded with time, and in 1954 the city removed the sad goddess, leaving the 30-foot-tall stone base." An obelisk is all that remains of the statue that used to grace this windy, 570-foot hilltop that was once considered the geographic center of the city, according to SF Rec and Park." The background can be found by searching for "Goddess of Liberty" "Mount Olympus" "Ashbury Heights" https://theclio.com/entry/12395 and there's a picture of the stature at https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mt._Olympus and also https://www.opensfhistory.org/osfhcrucible/2020/11/22/the-triumph-of-light-a-closer-look/
Google also gave lots of images similar to Ramon's photo. E.g. https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/mystery-behind-strange-pineapple-cloud-113680 which says this is a 'fallstreak' cloud or 'hole punch cloud'. "The phenomenon can happen when jet aircraft “punch” through a layer of cloud and create a wake of ice crystals as they pass overhead. Supercooled by the pressure of the aircraft they then form droplets and fall from the cloud layer, creating strange shaped patterns in the sky." Several more examples, and the same explanation are at https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/weather-watcher/36675007 which is pretty confirmative (as despite recent controversies relating to BBC news reporting, this doesn't involve splicing together different bits of Presidential speeches). Wikipedia also has an article on them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallstreak_hole
The last photo was taken at 24 Rue Chaude, 21140 Semur-en-Auxois, France (again based on FotoForensics - with your iPhone on 3 Nov 2023 (so much older) at 4.32pm. Lots of reverse image results from Google at https://www.komoot.com/guide/1357476/attractions-around-semur-en-auxois as one. There's a Wikipedia page on the town at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semur-en-Auxois and https://www.terres-auxois.fr/en/a-weekend-in-semur-en-auxois-in-burgundy/
ReplyDeleteThe problem was identifying when the bridge was built. https://mindtrip.ai/attraction/semur-en-auxois-cote-dor/pont-pinard/at-OZGm0W3U says 13th Century - perhaps there was a bridge then, but it's not this one. https://www.ville-semur-en-auxois.fr/les-ponts/ gives a few dates (Google translated): "The Pinard bridge, or Pignard on the Belleforest view, provided access to the Pertuisot mountain pasture. It was destroyed or extensively damaged on several occasions by floods, including those of 1613, 1720, 1765 and 1856."
https://structurae.net/en/structures/pinard-bridge says it was built in the 18th century and repaired in 1756. So I'm going with 1720 or earlier for when it was rebuilt although it could have been any year after 1613 to 1720 because the official government site at https://pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/merimee/IA21003422 says 'In 1613, a flood swept away the bridge, which had to be rebuilt. In 1765, damage from another flood necessitated reinforcement work. Again, on the night of May 11-12, 1856, a sudden flood, caused by torrential and continuous rain "from 7 p.m. until the following day," caused extensive damage and required the partial reconstruction of the bridge.'
Gemini seems to agree with all this - https://share.google/aimode/1TQL9ilLMNpPQP5bi and so does ChatGPT https://chatgpt.com/share/691630f5-b05c-8001-a43d-b1b9ba0eccf3 (which cannot find an actual build date) so earliest rebuild date was 1613 but more likely early 18th C - before repairs in 1756. (The 1856 marker on the bridge is not the build date - but the high water mark at that date).
I tried to do the reverse image search using Perplexity Pro and Copilot (free version).
ReplyDeleteI have shared the url for the queries below:
Perplexity Pro
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/ai-capabilities-image-search-s-8ck_36BMToK_LDN_J2uSRQ#1
Copilot
https://copilot.microsoft.com/shares/T7oxTNeWW5RkXc7951pkB
Dr. Dan replied to me via email: "the answers are missing important aspects of the images! Keep searching!"
ReplyDeleteI copied his comment into the AI threads and they came up with more detailed analyses.
Perplexity Pro
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/ai-capabilities-image-search-s-8ck_36BMToK_LDN_J2uSRQ#2
Copilot
https://copilot.microsoft.com/shares/CMf6nXnAd6tzStwTr2GWi
Out of topic. This was the first time I heard the word and the topic "chirality " and chiral system. Also new the " mirror cell". I love to discover new stuff thanks to Dr. Russell's blog
ReplyDeletehttps://youtube.com/shorts/WaHxbrx02hU?si=kyk6dCklN-VBd9rz