Sumeet's Thoughts

Irish Arm Wrestling

Another gem from break.com:

I dont know why this is called Irish Arm Wrestling, perhaps because it works really well on dumb irish meat heads. Whatever the reason, I would be careful who you choose to pull this trick on. The guy in the video doesn’t seem pleased.

[Save This. You need an FLV Player.]

1 comment March 22nd, 2006

Knocked Out By Tornado Kick

From break.com:

The guy in the blue was actually losing the match up until a perfect Tornado Kick knocks out his opponent. Watch the end of the video when the guy in red tries to get up and walk.

[Save This. You need an FLV Player.]

4 comments March 22nd, 2006

No Pants - 2006

A team of humor-advocates ride on a New York subway with No Pants.

[Save This. You need an FLV Player.]

Add comment March 22nd, 2006

Meet A Black Person

Some parts of the world lack Indians. Others lack people from Pakistan. Aspen, CO happens to lack Black people. The person in this video capitalizes on this fact for an unforgettable short video.

[Save This. You need an FLV Player.]

The video is by the team members of Improv Everywhere. Check out their site for more of their missions.

31 comments March 22nd, 2006

Riya Review (Beta)

• Training Riya
• Riya Training Itself
• Browsing Individual Photos
• Riya Can Goof… But It Can Amaze, Too.

Riya works. It’s that simple. I uploaded thousands of photos last night (Well, Riya did. I was sleeping.), and today I spent about an hour training Riya to the faces. In retrospect, that was probably more time than was needed, but better safe than sorry.

When I first logged into Riya, I browsed my photos. At the time, Riya had recognized zero faces since I hadn’t told her who anyone was. After some time, though, more and more faces began to pop up (Riya continues to recognize faces as you work and after you’re done). Riya has recognized 744 faces from my photos, and counting.

Read On: Training Riya

Training Riya

Riya’s training processes are very intuitive and effective. Other than viewing individual pictures one-by-one and filling in the names for the faces, there are two primary ways to train Riya, and they go together.

In Simple Training, you’re presented with several random photos. Each has fields below it for identifying the person in the photo. Once you identify someone for the first time, their name is added to the list of your contacts on the left. The next time you see one of their photos, you can drag that name onto the photo instead of typing it in.

After a round of that, you’re taken to the Bulk Training screen. Here, Riya uses the data it gathered in Simple Training to double-check its recognitition. It’s usually pretty good at finding the faces to fit your identifications.

If Riya does happen to make a mistake, it’s mature enough to learn from it. Simply click on a photo that doesn’t match the name it’s supposed to. This way, Riya can further refine its recognition of your contacts.

Read On: Riya Training Itself

Riya Training Itself

All of the training in Riya isn’t necessarily manual. Riya can search its entire public database to help you out. If you and someone else have a shared friend, and you haven’t identified your friend yet, it’s possible they’re already in the system. Riya can search through your address book from most major e-mail services to gather a list of email addresses to check the system for.

This functionality isn’t too powerful yet, but I suspect that’s because so few people are actually using Riya right now. The odds of finding a shared contact are slim. But as Riya brings more users into its testing and eventually opens the doors to the public, I’m confident that Riya’s auto-training will be very effective.

Read On: Browsing Individual Photos

Browsing Individual Photos

It’s pretty exciting to search through your photos for the first time and see so many faces recognized - especially given the minimal training you had to do to get there. But every so often, Riya will need your help to understand a specific photo.

In the below photo, Riya didn’t realize that there were two people in the photo. It had only gathered data for my cousin on the right (pink jacket). So, I used my cursor to draw that red box around my other cousin.

Riya then checks to make sure you didn’t draw the square on purpose.

Then I entered her name, and the photo’s recognition was complete:

Read On: Riya Can Goof… But It Can Amaze, Too.

Riya Can Goof… But It Can Amaze, Too.

Sometimes Riya thinks things are faces that aren’t. It’s okay - I do that sometimes, too.

Fortunately, such goofs are far outnumbered by displays of power and precision:

Ultimately, Riya is an excellent service with great potential. For people with tons of photos, organizing your computer with Riya can be a life-saver. Though it has its moments of fogginess, the facial recognition is pretty accurate. It works well even in low-light photos, and can usually tell if someone is contorting their face with a yawn or frown.

Thumbs Up.

41 comments March 22nd, 2006