Digitalsmiths Lets You Search Inside Video

Digitalsmiths claims to have a so-called ’skin detection algorithm’ that will allow users of the video search engine to search for dialogue, nude scenes and more… How peculiar.

I knew that opening would get you to read more… Apparently, from what we’ve learned, they’re aiming the new detection system directly at broadcasters who are sharing their video online directly to consumers and are not interested in directly competing with the major players in video search (Google, Blinkx, etc). They’ve also got their eye on Hollywood studios as well which makes sense if one thinks about it.

Where other sites only allow you to search metadata, descriptions and tags, Digitalsmith’s newly dubbed Videosense 2.0 works with actor names, characters, locations, dialogue and even objects in scenes which makes it sound really interesting and powerful. I’d like to see a demo of all of that (hint, hint…).

The service basically works by giving a larger amount of space for keywords and metatags from what we’re given to understand. Meanwhile its ’skin detection system’ is said to be able to determine which scenes have nudity and allow content providers to tag them individually. Great for parents, terrible for the porn industry I bet. But it’s not just about finding nipples, penises and the like. The service can also utilize a facial recognition technology so it can pull out the characters and actors in scenes as well as pull in the dialogue and run it through speech analysis. I wonder if nipple and penis recognition is next? I mean that would really be something wouldn’t it?

So if you want to see Angelina kiss another girl or Brad get naked now you’ll be able to just skip to those scenes and not have to 16x through the whole film online anymore or randomly guess where it is (24:30 in Gia…ok it’s a joke, I don’t really know).

Digitalsmith has carved up their service into four products:

• MetaFrame – to assign tags including characters, actors, dialogue, and location.
• VideoSense Asset Manager – for content management of videos.
• VideoSense Intelligence – The consumer-side search engine.
• Publisher – scheduling and distribution of content.

This might break the mold for the major players in the online video distribution market and give consumers a far quicker way to see exactly what they want to see. Of course seeing Megan Fox lean under the hood of Bumblebee over and over again without having to search for it might actually be worth paying a premium for such a service online.

About the Author - Christophor Rick
Christophor Rick is a freelance writer specializing in technology, new media and consumer electronics. His work appears on numerous sites across the web including ReelSEO. He went to uni for Biotechnology, did an internship with NASA and has written 2 as-yet-unpublished books (a 3rd is in progress). He is also the CEO at Gamers Daily News and his past work has included press releases, copywriting, travel writing and journalism. His newest project R2 Relations is leveraging the power of social networks to increase brand awareness and traffic for companies and their products and creating online communities for increased interaction with the products and brands.