Tech
PetMatch App: Find a New Companion Similar to your Lost Pet
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: May 21, 2014 05:32 PM EDT
The loss of a loved pet can be traumatizing. Yet a new app called PetMatch is intended to help those who have lost a cat or dog find a new one that looks similar.
With the help of Superfish, an Israel and Palo Alto-based start-up founded in 2006, algorithms are used to locate a new pet in local areas based on the original version of your beloved animal. The company has raised around $20 million in funding, comprised of a team from MIT and Stanford who use geometric angles to match the shape face, eye distance and mouth angles of the previous animal.
The app's next step grabs images from Petfinder, which looks through local animal shelters to find similar-looking creatures waiting to be adopted. These new photos also provide all the details on the new and future-to-be, pet, including name, description and location of shelter.
"Our vision is that visual search will allow people to use any picture as a starting point in their search to find exactly what they are looking for--in real time," said Superfish CEO Adi Pinhas in a statement quoted by PCMag. "We wanted to help speed up the pet adoption process, cutting through the clutter of information on the Web, and ultimately making the experience more efficient and more fun."
Let's not forget that most people are simply gaga over their pets. For instance, some people get their pets nails done. Others buy them sweaters. Others throw them $158,000 weddings. (After all, dogs living in sin are just not right.) And some even bury their pets in actual cemeteries.
Why not have an app to help replace them, too? ("Pet Sematary," anyone?)
The app can be downloaded from the iTunes App store.
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First Posted: May 21, 2014 05:32 PM EDT
The loss of a loved pet can be traumatizing. Yet a new app called PetMatch is intended to help those who have lost a cat or dog find a new one that looks similar.
With the help of Superfish, an Israel and Palo Alto-based start-up founded in 2006, algorithms are used to locate a new pet in local areas based on the original version of your beloved animal. The company has raised around $20 million in funding, comprised of a team from MIT and Stanford who use geometric angles to match the shape face, eye distance and mouth angles of the previous animal.
The app's next step grabs images from Petfinder, which looks through local animal shelters to find similar-looking creatures waiting to be adopted. These new photos also provide all the details on the new and future-to-be, pet, including name, description and location of shelter.
"Our vision is that visual search will allow people to use any picture as a starting point in their search to find exactly what they are looking for--in real time," said Superfish CEO Adi Pinhas in a statement quoted by PCMag. "We wanted to help speed up the pet adoption process, cutting through the clutter of information on the Web, and ultimately making the experience more efficient and more fun."
Let's not forget that most people are simply gaga over their pets. For instance, some people get their pets nails done. Others buy them sweaters. Others throw them $158,000 weddings. (After all, dogs living in sin are just not right.) And some even bury their pets in actual cemeteries.
Why not have an app to help replace them, too? ("Pet Sematary," anyone?)
The app can be downloaded from the iTunes App store.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone