[AI]nnovation News: Feb 2021

Day-by-day the world of Artificial Intelligence continues to change and grow in the most amazing, revolutionary and even sometimes controversial ways. Staying up to date can be so difficult! 

That’s where we come in. ElementX keeps a constant finger on the AI pulse. Our team gathers regularly to share news of the latest AI tools and use cases. Here’s the latest we’ve recently discovered in fashion retail, healthcare, photography and more.

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DEEP NOSTALGIA BRINGS FAMILY PHOTOS TO LIFE

MyHeritage has released their Deep Nostalgia tool to animate faces in family photos. With the power of deep learning, the service is exceptionally good at smoothly animating facial features and expressions. The AI-powered results are surreal - seeing a lost loved one smiling and winking can be an emotionally moving experience… Or potentially odd and unnerving?! You can decide for yourself! Beyond family photos, many have used this tool to reanimate historical paintings and statues for remarkable and hilarious results.

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MORE RESTFUL NIGHTS WITH NANIT’S AI BABY MONITOR

Nanit has raised another $25 million for its innovative baby monitoring system. Founded in 2014, Nanit has the only baby monitor that connects parents to their baby's health and well-being as it has features which utilise computer vision, such as breathing motion monitoring and night vision. 

The recently launched Nanit Pro also allows parents to measure  their baby’s height, for  growth tracking between doctor visits. This could alleviate many anxieties and concerns over keeping a constant eye over their loved ones, providing more restful nights for parents. The company intends to broaden its product ecosystem with items like changing pads and nightlights, that can be amplified by the Nanit app experience.

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SHAZAM BUT FOR LUXURY BAGS?!
THE WORLD'S FIRST IMAGE RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY FOR DESIGNER RESALE

The online designer fashion resale platform Rebag has launched Clair AI, the world’s first image recognition technology for luxury resale. Short for Comprehensive Luxury Appraisal Index for Resale, the software uses computer vision to instantly recognize and relay the resale value of designer handbags across a list of over 50 brands, recognising over 15,000 existing references with 91% accuracy. Clair AI can help customers identify the value of their luxury handbags and decide whether to hold onto them for investment posterity, sell or trade through Rebag and other channels, or to even buy more of them!

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‍AN AI-DRIVEN HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT

China-based Bello provides an AI-driven human resources management system for small to medium-sized companies. The main problem Bello tries to solve is the amount of time companies spend searching for and selecting job candidates, leading to high recruitment costs. The company claims that its software can analyse 25 English or Chinese resumes within one second, taking that data to highlight job history, education background, risk factors and even exaggerated claims or falsified credentials. Bello could help many companies recruit candidates quicker and cheaper by reducing repetitive and tedious tasks, saving time and labour costs.

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A FASTER WAY TO FILTER THROUGH PHOTOS

One of New Zealand’s fastest-growing start-ups, Narrative, is building AI tools for professional photographers to slash their time in the editing suite and send them back out behind the camera. Backed by some of the largest venture capitalists in the US and NZ, Narrative seeks to speed up, improve and simplify a photographer's workflow. Their professional culling tool Select (now out for free on Beta!) uses industry-leading computer vision and machine learning to understand photo desirability, helping photographers leave out photos that are unfocused and blurry, or quickly find faces of subjects to easily identify them blinking or looking away.

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LEARNING MORE FROM YOUR MICROBIOME‍

The human microbiome composed of communities of billions of microbes, bacteria, viruses and fungi live on the human body, helping to maintain our skin condition and defending us from external pathogens that can harm us. IBM has shared research highlighting the use of AI to explain your body’s microbiome, identifying your age and other factors such as whether you’re a smoker or menopausal. These new insights offer the potential to support the development of personalised treatments for healthy skin. A better understanding of our bodies’ microbiomes could help improve overall health and wellbeing, by accelerating the development of treatments, including prebiotics and probiotics.

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