简介：
We're All Hawking Products Now
知道了这些，你还能愉快地自拍吗？
Software start-ups getting big bucks to write code that can identify, find and link logos and brands in the billions of images posted daily. Larry Greenemeier reports
你知道吗？你发布的每张照片可能都被程序分析过。一些新兴软件公司编写的代码，可以在每天发布的数十亿张照片中识别出照片中的商标和品牌，谋取巨大的经济效益。
撰文/播音 拉里•格林迈耶（Larry Greenemeier）
翻译 靳淞茹
审校 李轩
You post photos on social media sites for the enjoyment of your family and friends. But your snapshots are also a potential gold mine of information about what you spend money on for those sites and the companies that advertise on them.
你一定在社交网站上发布照片，和家人朋友们分享欢乐。但同时，对于这些网站，以及在网站上投放广告的商家来说，你的照片也是一座潜在的信息金矿——它们利用你发布的照片获取你的消费偏好等信息。
Artificial intelligence software is on the horizon that can spot brands like Nike or Coke even in images without text or tags. Google, Facebook and other deep-pocketed investors are accelerating this software’s development. Even startup photo-sharing service Pinterest got in on the action earlier this year by buying the even more “start-uppy” VisualGraph, whose software could be used to find and link photos with similar content.
随着人工智能的发展，现在的软件已经可以从照片中识别出耐克、可口可乐这些商标——即使照片中没有品牌文字和标签。谷歌、Facebook以及其他一些财力雄厚的投资者都正在加速开发这种软件。就连照片共享服务网站品趣志（Pinterest）今年早些时也有所动作，它收购了更“新兴”的北京图王软件公司,此公司开发了一款软件，可以寻找并关联内容相似的照片。
In general the software winning these investments uses machine vision, image recognition and/or visual search algorithms to identify objects and shapes as well as textures. One startup called Ditto Labs makes a search engine that specifically examines digital images for logos and brands.
通常，软件公司都是利用机器视觉、图像识别技术，或者可以识别出物体和其形状与纹理的视觉搜索算法吸引投资。一个叫做图迪斯实验室（Ditto Labs ）的新兴公司开发出了一个可以从数字图像中准确识别出商标和品牌的的搜索引擎。
So next time you’re chowing down in McDonald’s, smile for that selfie. You’re feeding that company’s bottom line and probably helping a tech startup earn its next million. On second thought, why are YOU smiling?
因此，当你在麦当劳里大嚼美餐、微笑自拍并上传照片的时候，你可能正在为那些科技创业公司赚钱——也许就是它的下一个一百万。仔细想想这些，你还能微笑得出来吗？
（题图来源：http://knote.com/）
