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CogniSign Launches Xcavator(TM) for Photo Search and Content Management; New Image Search Technology Makes It Easier for Consumers to Manage and Share Digital Photos

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 July 2006, 15:00 CDT

CogniSign, an emerging leader in photo search technology, today launched its new xcavator(TM) consumer software platform, a breakthrough technology to help consumers manage and share their digital photos.

The xcavator product solution provides extremely compelling interactive photo search capabilities, allowing consumers to naturally search photos based on visual content. The key to xcavator's capabilities is its image recognition engine, powered by the award-winning CogniSign Intelligent Image Recognition Technology. An interactive interface in xcavator allows a user to pick key features of interest in a photo, defining the type of similarity he or she wants to see in a search for more photos. This empowers the user to specify extremely targeted search tasks for collections of similar images.

"It can be very difficult for anyone to find a particular photo today: you have to know the date on which a photo was taken, or you had to have either manually added 'tags' that describe the pictures contents, or placed every photo as you took it in an appropriately named folder," said Paul Worthington, senior analyst for consumer imaging at Future Image and editor of its executive news service. "If you could instead use one photo to find others that are similar, it would be both far more easy and intuitive for users of all skill levels. Unorganized photos on a hard drive can't be enjoyed by anyone, but if you can find the shots you want, it could streamline photo sharing and printing."

Photo management systems for consumers have evolved significantly, and products like Google's Picasa, Apple's iPhoto, and Yahoo! Photos provide many important tools needed to manage large photo collections. However, these systems and others available today provide features that are primarily text based.

"With our technology, consumers can interact with their photos and tell xcavator what type of similarity in visual content is important to the search and grouping process," said Bryan Calkins, CEO of CogniSign. "Once a group has been identified based on user-specified similarity, all sorts of productivity tools can augment existing approaches: group placement in file folders or visual 'lightboard' albums, group file naming, and group tagging with common descriptors. The xcavator consumer platform allows a consumer to have this type of interaction while working with databases of thousands of photos."

The xcavator product solution can be deployed on a typical home media PC, or it can also work with web-based photo management systems like Shutterfly and Kodak's EasyShare Gallery. The technology can easily be configured to search distributed photo databases across an unlimited number of servers.

Additionally, xcavator can augment the photo sharing sites like Yahoo!'s Flickr that have become leaders in the Web 2.0 phenomenon of Internet-based "social connectivity." An interactive demo of xcavator interfaced with Flickr can be seen at www.xcavator.net, with an informative video introduction. A Product Data Sheet describing xcavator in more detail is available at www.cognisign.com at the RESOURCES tab.

About CogniSign

CogniSign is a technology company providing image search product solutions based on its award-winning Intelligent Image Recognition Technology (patents pending). The company provides product solutions in the consumer, enterprise IT, and security and defense sectors. CogniSign LLC is a privately held company based in San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit http://www.cognisign.com. For immediate assistance, please email Celia Cratch at ccratch@cognisign.com.

NOTE: CogniSign, the CogniSign logo, xcavator, and Intelligent Image Recognition Technology are trademarks of CogniSign LLC. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Source: Business Wire

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