Thursday, June 26, 2008

Eyealike Takes On Online Dating

Seattle-based Eyealike, a developer of technology for visual search, has put a new spin on its product: finding your next mate. According to Eyealike, it has added a new image search solution for facial recognition and similarity matching. The new feature is targeted at searching social networking and online dating websites, which helps people find potential mates using what the firm describes as "personal preferences for face shape, skin color, and hair color." The firm--which rolled out its facial recognition features in January--had previously been applying its technology towards detecting video copyright violations on online video sharing sites like YouTube. Eyealike said its Faces technology works by letting users upload a photo of someone they find attractive, and find people who are similar physically. The firm is now looking for online dating and social networking websites who want to implement its technology. Greg Heuss, the firm's President, told Northwest Innovation in January that it has so far raised $1.6M in angel funding so far.