Don’t just marvel, search by image to explore world

• With Google ‘Search by Image', just key in the image of the location and the machine vision will synthesise the data and give directions.
• The machine breaks down the image into smaller pieces that capture specific and distinct characteristics such us textures, colours and shapes. The features are then sent to servers and compared against the billions of images in the company’s index to find matches.

Many times people get pictures of great scenes but are disappointed when they can’t connect them to a location. Using the Google ‘Search by Image’ tool launched last year, this is possible.

One does not need to key in words but pastes the picture on the search bar.

If planning a trip to Europe and you come across a photograph of a beautiful landscape somewhere in Greece, you want to know the location to include it in your itinerary.

But how would you describe the photo to do a search via text? This may be difficult.

However, with Google ‘Search by Image’, just key in the image of the location you are dying to reach and the machine vision will synthesise the data and give directions.

In what seems like fiction, the machine breaks down the image into smaller pieces that capture specific and distinct characteristics such us textures, colours and shapes.

The features are then sent to servers and compared against the billions of images in the company’s index to find matches.

And there you have exactly what you asked for. Simple?

You no longer need to trouble yourself recalling the name of the image you want to search online.

If you do not have the image on your phone, just browse on your computer and upload.

You can also drag and drop the image onto the search box or you can copy and paste the image’s URL/link onto the search box.

Search filters
Alternatively, one can use a set of search filters provided on the hand side of the screen to narrow the quest.

For instance, if you are looking for something with a particular pigment, you can click the colour for the image you are looking for and it appears.

However, this is limited to creations like flowers.

If you need scalable images, you need not to worry.

Scalable vector graphics allows one to get images that can be enlarged without losing sharpness by typing the words “filetype:svg” before the image you are searching.