Understanding Image Recognition and Uses in Several Industries

The human brain is incredible in different ways, and there is more to explore about it in depth. Humans can quickly identify and distinguish objects and their shape, size, and color features. This happens because the human mind is trained unconsciously with images that result in development and growth. On the other hand, machines or computers can also recognize objects with their distinct features. In recent technological advancements, computer vision and image recognition concepts have increased and been widely adopted in different industries. Specifically, AI and ML technology play a significant role in contributing to image recognition technology.

Today, image recognition technology is easily available; however, we need to observe it—for instance, biometric access in offices, face locks in phones, or security checkpoints on roads. In the technologically driven world, no aspect of our lives is not controlled by technology. Today, in the digital era, startups and multinational companies use image recognition technology according to their demand and subject of interest. It unlocks new growth potential for many economic industries.

Today, computers can see and understand objects as humans can. In 2021, image recognition is not just a concept of science fiction. It is an application that changed the way we see the world. The image recognition market is growing at a brisk pace. It is likely to reach USD 58920 million by 2026 at a CAGR of 15.6% during the estimated period 2021-2026.

As a matter of fact, there is extensive usage of smartphones with applications for authentication, object identification, and augmented reality (using image recognition technology). There is a rising demand for image recognition in various end-user sectors like banking, smart cities, retail, and automobiles.

What is Image Recognition?

Image recognition is a technology that identifies people, places, objects, buildings, vehicles, and many other variables in images and draws conclusions from them by analyzing them. It utilizes artificial intelligence and image processing algorithms to analyze and understand a single image or a series of images.

A human eye can naturally distinguish between different pictures, but a digital system must be trained to do that. A digital image is made up of various elements called pixels. Pixels carry various quantities of measurable numeric data for their intensity or gray level. A computer will see an image in its numerical values (of the pixels), and to recognise the image, the computer will identify this numerical data.

North America and the Asia Pacific are the extensive users of this technology for activities like surveillance and security systems, data verification, face recognition, tracking, and data analysis. This technology can obtain vital data and insights from various images and catalyze its applications and possible use across industries. Image recognition also enables the user experience over photo organization apps by offering them various search and detection functions.

How Does Image Recognition Help Various Industries?

The principal applications of this technology are face recognition, security and surveillance, visual geolocation, object identification, gesture recognition, code verification, industrial automation, image interpretation in medical, and driver assistance. These applications help various fields in countless ways.

• eCommerce:- Image search and advertising are this field’s most utilized image recognition applications. This technology can enhance an eStore with features like customized searches, consumer analytics, social media, and conversational commerce. Organizations can gain valuable insights for promotional campaigns and marketing strategies using the data they get through image recognition. Capable of getting users’ preferences, this data can majorly and positively impact your ROI.
• Automobile:- Apart from traditional automobile companies, many tech giants also work on self-driving cars. The idea behind this concept is to reduce the rate of road accidents and strict obedience to traffic rules. In 2019, American multinational technology conglomerate Cisco and the most popular automobile manufacturer, Hyundai, collaborated and created a new platform that provides highly secure access to all the data in autonomous cars.
• Social Media:- Another field that reaps enormous benefits is social media. Facebook uses it at its best. Open the app, and its image recognition will identify your friends, family members, and colleagues, know their names, and give you suggestions to tag them while you upload a photo. Using this technology, the search for a person, event, or image also becomes easier and more effective.
• Security and Surveillance:- This sector requires image recognition the most. Corporate giants and their security departments utilize facial recognition to ensure strict security and identify misconduct or crime. Countless images are scanned and added to the neural system. The system investigates and matches the images with suspects.
• Healthcare:- The medical field is using image recognition to improve image analysis and medical analysis. This includes examining body parts, recognizing diseases, and forecasting health problems. Being highly specific, it provides analysis better than a medical professional.
• Gaming:- Surely heard of the Microsoft Kinect Video Game. Having sold more than 10 million Kinect sensor systems in 2011, it holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling consumer electronics device ever to this date. Based on computer vision is more of a motion-capturing tool that tracks human body movements in real time. (Another example is the joystick of PlayStation, which identifies players’ moves and tracks them).

Along with the sectors mentioned above, military services and forest management are also benefiting from this technology. It helps detect unusual movements in border areas. Plus, the automated decision-making abilities help prevent enemy intrusions. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) connected with image recognition abilities can monitor the forest and foretell changes in advance.

In a Nutshell

Image recognition is one of the growing technologies in this modern world. In the digital world, computer vision systems observe and identify patterns in all numerical data, which helps to identify a particular object. Usually, with advancements in technology, image recognition services are catered to by deep learning. However, having an in-house team can be costly and ineffective with results. Compared to that, outsourcing is a better and wise choice. edataMine offers relevant image recognition services through cutting-edge technologies and professionals.