Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) plans to bring some of the features found in the Chromecast media dongle into TV in what is being seen as a move to cut off Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its own move to the tubes.
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The features will be found in the latest smart TV models manufactured by Vizio thus eliminating the need to have a Chromecast dongle. Packaging the features will also allow users to get more value from TVs without having to add peripheral devices.
The TV maker will also include an Android-powered controller to accompany each TV set. The controller will allow users to quickly adapt to the new features. This means the TVs will be different from the regular app-operating TV sets. Nonetheless, they will still include content streaming apps from Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Hulu.
This is Google’s third Android platform to be included in a TV set. The company has previously included Android TV and Google TV interfaces. It is being seen as an opportunity for the company to determine whether people will be more interested in an interface that does not rely on apps. Vizio has not announced the launch date for the TV sets, but critics expect them to be in the market relatively soon.
Alphabet has also revealed a new AI that can identify the location of an image without the use of geotags. The AI is the brainchild of a team led by Google’s computer vision specialist, Tobias Weyand. The project analyzes image pixels and matches them with those of other images located in its image library. It then determines the location by matching pixels like puzzle pieces.
The AI used in the project is called PlaNet. The developers had to feed in more than 90 million geotagged images taken from all over the world. During testing of plaNet, the system managed to achieve 28.4% accuracy though it was only using 2.3 million images. Though it does not seem like the most refined system yet, it shows a lot of promise.
