Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

MIT's Picture Language Lets Computers Recognize Faces Through Inference

Posted by Soulskill on from the your-face-can-run,-but-it-can't-hide dept.

itwbennett writes: MIT researchers are working on a new programming language called Picture, which could radically reduce the amount of coding needed to help computers recognize objects in images and video. It is a prototype of how a relatively novel form of programming, called probabilistic programming, could reduce the amount of code needed for such complex tasks. In one test of the new language, the researchers were able to cut thousands of lines of code in one image recognition program down to fewer than 50.

4 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Line Count is Misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "...the researchers were able to cut thousands of lines of code in one image recognition program down to fewer than 50."

    How many lines of code were used to write the MIT Picture language? The article summary claims to have replaced thousands of lines of code in an existing application yet do not mention the line count of the Picture language.

    1. Re:Line Count is Misleading by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 2

      After reading the article, it seems that the language allows for the code to modify itself. So that seems pretty flexible. Most languages specifically prohibit this kind of flexibility (as it is prone to errors).

    2. Re:Line Count is Misleading by Sowelu · · Score: 2

      I don't see how that's misleading. So what if the program has all kinds of fancy algorithms--they're not waving around "look how smart we are!!". They're saying "Hey if you want to write image processing code, you can do it this easy". ...man, I miss my image processing class.

  2. But the lines were ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 2

    ... long.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.