Microsoft released an app called Fetch! that will enlighten users about what kind of dog they are. Developed through Microsoft Garage, the app uses facial recognition to categorize humans by dog breeds.
"There was an interest in creating a framework that would allow you to take a domain -- in our case, dogs -- and recognize numerous classes, such as breeds. We were interested in enabling an app to allow you to make object recognition extraordinary, fun, and surprising," Mitch Goldberg, development director at Microsoft Research, said in a news release. "We wanted to bring artificial intelligence to the canine world. We wanted to show that object recognition is something anyone could understand and interact with."
Users can use the app in one of two ways: figure out what breed they are most similar to, or identify a dog’s breed by taking its picture.
"If you want to take photos of dogs, it will tell you what dog breed it is, if it's one of our supported breeds," Goldberg said. "If I choose to take a photograph of a flower, it'll say, 'No dogs found! Hmmm... This looks more like...flower?' But if you take a picture of a person, it'll kick into its hidden fun mode. And in a playful way, it'll communicate to you not only what type of dog it thinks you are, but also why. It's fun to see if the app knows it's not a dog. A lot of the time, it'll tell you what that image is. When there's not a dog, you still want to use it."
For humans, different pictures can produce different results depending on accessories and other variables.
“What makes this unique is the combination of machine intelligence and expert data about dog breeds, which helped us be more accurate. We invested in dog experts in making sure we had correct images for each breed,” says Javier Alvarez-Valle, senior software development engineer on the team that built Fetch!.
The creators demonstrated the technology behind Fetch! at the 15th annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit in July 2014. The creators have since developed the technology and created the website and app, which is available for download on the Apple App Store or via What-Dog.net.
For those looking for their canine doppelganger without having to download an app, the Twitter handle @YouAreNowaDog can also find your canine lookalike for you. Users simply follow the account, send a selfie, and wait patiently as the account delivers results. The art to finding your dog counterpart is more than just skin deep: The account uses accessories, environment, and facial expressions to find the perfect dog and the perfect picture. Currently, the account has 54.7K followers and follows only one lucky user: Snoop Dogg.
