Comments on: Idea: Book recommender http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:53:22 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Luis http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5735 Luis Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:58:29 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5735 The recommendations side is almost certainly librarything, though I believe Amazon will now also give you recommendations on things you didn't buy there. As for the rest, my current plan is to scan everything as I unpack it when I get out of storage at the end of the honeymoon :) The recommendations side is almost certainly librarything, though I believe Amazon will now also give you recommendations on things you didn’t buy there. As for the rest, my current plan is to scan everything as I unpack it when I get out of storage at the end of the honeymoon :)

]]> By: Ian McKellar http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5715 Ian McKellar Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:19:39 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5715 Why stop at books, surely it can't take that much computing (or mechanical turk) to identify and recommend stuff. Also, it should be able to recommend living rooms to thieves. Why stop at books, surely it can’t take that much computing (or mechanical turk) to identify and recommend stuff.

Also, it should be able to recommend living rooms to thieves.

]]> By: Io McKinnon http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5709 Io McKinnon Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:15:12 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5709 Didn't take long for someone to catch up: Registrant: c/o BOOKSCANR.COM P.O. Box 821650 Vancouver, WA 98682 US Registrar: DOTSTER Didn’t take long for someone to catch up:

Registrant:
c/o BOOKSCANR.COM
P.O. Box 821650
Vancouver, WA 98682
US

Registrar: DOTSTER

]]> By: Wolfgang http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5701 Wolfgang Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:57:07 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5701 http://ideas.4brad.com/photograph-your-shelves-catalog-your-library http://ideas.4brad.com/photograph-your-shelves-catalog-your-library

]]> By: Wolfgang http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5700 Wolfgang Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:21:53 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5700 Wow, that is a cool idea! There are lots of good book-communities out there which allow you to add all your books to some kind of virtual shelf (e.g. lovelybooks, goodreads, librarything). But who wants to add 100s of books manually... The coolest thing would be to integrate such an OCR-approach into one of those sides. Or maybe, if some of you are interested, we could develop such an OCR-book-scanner and see what we can do with it. Wow, that is a cool idea! There are lots of good book-communities out there which allow you to add all your books to some kind of virtual shelf (e.g. lovelybooks, goodreads, librarything). But who wants to add 100s of books manually… The coolest thing would be to integrate such an OCR-approach into one of those sides. Or maybe, if some of you are interested, we could develop such an OCR-book-scanner and see what we can do with it.

]]> By: oliver http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5694 oliver Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:22:17 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5694 PS: would it be possible to make a "movie" of the shelf, ie. moving the phone on front of the shelf and letting some software stitch the frames into a huge multi-megapixel image? Could current panorama stitching software be used for this? PS: would it be possible to make a “movie” of the shelf, ie. moving the phone on front of the shelf and letting some software stitch the frames into a huge multi-megapixel image? Could current panorama stitching software be used for this?

]]> By: oliver http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5693 oliver Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:16:41 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5693 The book spine OCRing would be really useful, just to get a digital list of one's own book shelf. What is the current state of free OCR engines? The book spine OCRing would be really useful, just to get a digital list of one’s own book shelf. What is the current state of free OCR engines?

]]> By: Ben Maurer http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5677 Ben Maurer Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:36:32 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5677 Doing the OCR would be hardish. It's probably solvable to some extent, but definitely not by off the shelf software. I think the amazon referral fees could be worth enough that it'd make sense to mturk the problem (doing text detection is much easier than accurately digitizing it). This is especially true if you progressively catalog the user's library as they start buying books based on your referrals (so that you don't spend tons of money on unprofitable users). Doing the OCR would be hardish. It’s probably solvable to some extent, but definitely not by off the shelf software. I think the amazon referral fees could be worth enough that it’d make sense to mturk the problem (doing text detection is much easier than accurately digitizing it). This is especially true if you progressively catalog the user’s library as they start buying books based on your referrals (so that you don’t spend tons of money on unprofitable users).

]]> By: Jonathan Hernandez http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5676 Jonathan Hernandez Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:31:31 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5676 Sounds good, I dont know if "Amazon Remembers" (Amazon iPhone app) has an API, it could be used for that idea, Amazon already has the recommendation engine, the problem here is the app to identify the distinct books (or maybe it can be used for all the things in your room) Sounds good, I dont know if “Amazon Remembers” (Amazon iPhone app) has an API, it could be used for that idea, Amazon already has the recommendation engine, the problem here is the app to identify the distinct books (or maybe it can be used for all the things in your room)

]]> By: Nat Friedman http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5661 Nat Friedman Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:41:53 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5661 Jered, Chris I think a standard non-phone camera should be able to get enough information from each spine to make it identifiable. You don't have to actually be able to read each character, but I bet you can learn to identify books by spine. There could be some kind of guideline like "30 books per picture, 5MP minimum." And anyway, there's no way I am going to scan the barcodes of my 100s of books. I don't know about you guys but I'm not sitting on a lot of afternoons where I think to myself "You know what I want to do right now? Scan barcodes for 5 hours." Jered, Chris

I think a standard non-phone camera should be able to get enough information from each spine to make it identifiable. You don’t have to actually be able to read each character, but I bet you can learn to identify books by spine. There could be some kind of guideline like “30 books per picture, 5MP minimum.”

And anyway, there’s no way I am going to scan the barcodes of my 100s of books. I don’t know about you guys but I’m not sitting on a lot of afternoons where I think to myself “You know what I want to do right now? Scan barcodes for 5 hours.”

]]> By: Kelly Clowers http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5660 Kelly Clowers Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:36:53 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5660 just use LibraryThing and a cuecat just use LibraryThing and a cuecat

]]> By: Chris http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5658 Chris Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:19:57 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5658 I don't think the OCR is going to work out; you just aren't going to have enough pixels dedicated to each book, even with a good camera which most people don't have, and current state of the art OCR needs crisp black text on a white background and so on. The approach that seems more promising to me is using cell phone cameras to scan the barcodes of each book to build a library that way -- see e.g. http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/tag/barcode-scanner/ for a barcode-to-Shelfari client, or you can use a mix of Barcode Scanner and Clipbot on an Android phone. -- cjb. I don’t think the OCR is going to work out; you just aren’t going to have enough pixels dedicated to each book, even with a good camera which most people don’t have, and current state of the art OCR needs crisp black text on a white background and so on.

The approach that seems more promising to me is using cell phone cameras to scan the barcodes of each book to build a library that way — see e.g. http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/tag/barcode-scanner/ for a barcode-to-Shelfari client, or you can use a mix of Barcode Scanner and Clipbot on an Android phone.

– cjb.

]]> By: Jered Floyd http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5656 Jered Floyd Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:49:56 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5656 I like the idea, although even assuming a good OCR engine that can deal with wild spines, this'll require dozens to hundreds of photos to get enough resolution. As long as they can be easily uploaded, I guess that's not a big deal. I like the idea, although even assuming a good OCR engine that can deal with wild spines, this’ll require dozens to hundreds of photos to get enough resolution. As long as they can be easily uploaded, I guess that’s not a big deal.

]]> By: Nat Friedman http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5653 Nat Friedman Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:27:22 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5653 Actually one of my bookshelves is but it doesn't look nearly that good http://www.flickr.com/photos/natfriedman/3334231470/ The photo is from flickr. Actually one of my bookshelves is but it doesn’t look nearly that good

http://www.flickr.com/photos/natfriedman/3334231470/

The photo is from flickr.

]]> By: Matt McClure http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/idea-book-recommender/comment-page-1/#comment-5652 Matt McClure Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:25:18 +0000 http://nat.org/blog/?p=1415#comment-5652 Is your bookshelf organized by spine color? Or is that a stock image? Or lighting? Is your bookshelf organized by spine color? Or is that a stock image? Or lighting?

]]>