I am a serious, life-long Mac user. I bought my first Mac computer when I was in college. Back when Mac was starting out, you could go to the computer store and “test drive” one for a few days. I was sold and it paid off, too. My senior year in college, I took the most units I’d ever attempted and made Dean’s List for the first time ever as well. So, yeah, that’s pretty awesome stuff there in that box. Loved it. My computing life has been filled with a series of Macs ever since. And most everyone I know is touched by this love of the Mac. It’s good stuff.
So, it should be no surprise to know that I use iPhoto for most of my photo storage, organization (ha!), and even photo editing. I love me some iPhoto. iPhoto is part of a suite of applications called iLife. And a new version was just released. iLife ’09. I ordered it up based solely one ONE feature.
iPhoto recognizes faces in your photos and helps you to organize them. Hot diggity dog!
So, when it came on Tuesday, I wasted no time installing it and starting to play. But, it had to go through all my pics and catalog them a process which took — according to iPhoto more than 600 minutes. I left it running while I was at work yesterday. Yes, I did.
So, last night I was playing. Going through pics and telling iPhoto who each face was. It then makes a catalog of the faces and suggests other pictures that might have that face in it. Once it gets a baseline on each person, it starts to suggest on each picture “Is this Ruth?” Sometimes it’s right. Sometimes it’s off. But, it’s fun, that’s for sure!
As I was doing this, I’d run into a photo or 10 of Ruby and wonder . . . hmmmmm.
My husband, meanwhile, was playing with other parts of the software (we bought a Family Pack) and sent me an article with 20 helpful hints [click] on using iLife ’09. The authors were able to get their computer to recognize their cats’ faces. Game on.
So, I’m working on the computer recognizing Ruby. So far it’s not working on it’s own but I feel we’re still in the training phase. And, let’s face it. I take way more shots of Ruby than my kids.
But what I’m wondering is . . . will it recognize birds’ faces, too?
mother. wife. friend. teacher. writer. reader. photographer. birder. quilter. blogger.
Liza Lee Miller 
I’ve been a mac user for years too. I can’t imagine using anything else. I probably should learn how to use iPhoto features, but I tend to just download the pics there and leave it at that.
Oh that’s fun! But will it look at other rat terriers and think that they are Ruby, too?
Me, too! I use iPhoto for most of my editing. Enjoy your new toy!!
gosh, she’s cute. no wonder you have so many pictures of her.
I’ll be interested to see if/how this works out. Computers are getting smarter all the time, but are dogs faces distinctive the same way that people’s are?
Wouldn’t that be cool, if it COULD recognize birds? That would be awesome.
600 minutes. That cracks me up!
And coolio! I’m afraid my ibook is so old that it can’t handle the new ilife. So, until I get a new computer, I’ll just have to admire from afar.
Loving your vermin killah! 😀
I haven’t updated my iPhoto yet, but probably will soon. Do you have any rough estimate how many times out of ten it gives correct guess?
I have been also wondering if it really can recognize dogs. I have a lot of dog photos, so that would be a huge plus.
Thanks for the commenty love.
Phyllis, I think it will confuse Ruby with other Ratties just as often as it’s mixing Ruth and Gage up with their cousins.
Robin Andrea, I use iPhoto as my main photo editor. I adjust color and balance in there. What I haven’t done enough of is organizing my photos there. And, I don’t delete the crappy ones which is bad since my camera takes fairly large pics which take up a lot of room.
Wren, in some ways, dog faces are MORE distinctive . . . think of their fur coloring.
Susan, so far it’s not recognizing Ruby and I’d think birds would be harder. Who knows?
Wende, mine is a fairly old Powerbook G4 and it’s working. I’m not remembering my Mac laptop editions to know where yours might fall on that list.
Tommi, I’m still in the training stages on mine and it’s pretty inconsistent in it’s guesses. As for the dog faces, I have yet to get it to guess correctly . . . or even see her face as a face. We’ll see how it goes over time.
Uh-oh. Now I’m going to have to check out the new version.
Cute photo!
Wende, I have an old iBook too, but I have thought to give it a try. I think it should work OK in every day tasks, since I’m doing most of the heavy work with iMac.
Liza you have a lovely dog! I especially like this photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizalee/3207487144/in/set-72157594536891612/