In his iconic Star Wars series, George Lucas envisioned a world in a galaxy far, far away, where, among other things, doctors were droids and bots. In this world, a droid surgeon fitted Luke Skywalker with a bionic hand after a fight with Darth Vader, a bot midwife oversaw the delivery of Princess Leia and droids treated Luke Skywalker for hypothermia after his rescue from the icy planet of Hoth. Time and time again, robots, rather than humans, provided healthcare. Lucas viewed medical care as algorithmic, and therefore well within the capacity of intelligent machines. Does the world of healthcare in the Star Wars films -- where bots are the new docs -- mirror our own not-so-distant future of medicine?

Tech giant Google has added to its vast technology services stable by acquiring Paris-based startup Moodstocks, which has developed machine learning based image recognition technology for smartphones. The acquisition by Google will see it add the recognition technology of Moodstocks to its already large number of services it offers which use machine learning, such as Google Translate, Smart Reply in Inbox and the Goggle app. With many of its services already relying on machine learning technologies, Google's acquisition of Moodstocks will help with implementing visual recognition. The Moodstocks team of engineers and researchers, based in Paris, developed new algorithms for Visual pattern recognition and machine learning, as well as a technology for the recognition of images and objects via mobile devices. Head of the R&D Center of Google France, Vincent Simonet, wrote in a blog on July 7 to announce the deal, said that while great steps forward were taken by Google in terms of Visual recognition, there was still much to be done in this area, stating that the company expects that to be where Moodstocks comes into its own.

Late last year, I wrote about an interesting project from the US Defense Department to create a robotic jazz player. They developed a machine that is capable of performing a trumpet solo after picking up cues from fellow (human) musicians. "The goal of our research is to build a computer system and then hook it up to robots that can play instruments, and can play with human musicians in ways that we recognize as improvisational and adaptive," the researchers said. At the heart of this kind of project is a big data fueled pattern match, whereby machines learn what to do next by studying huge numbers of previous examples from human musicians. A similar project has been undertaken by researchers at Google.

"Ever since we started Moodstocks, our dream has been to give eyes to machines by turning cameras into smart sensors able to make sense of their surroundings," the company said in a statement. "Our [new] focus will be to build great image recognition tools within Google." Google stated that it will integrate Moodstock's software into its photo applications, improving the ability to tag and categorize user images. The acquisition raised concerns among privacy advocates. "All connected devices now have a camera and microphone in them, often these can be turned off and on without us knowing. Making these eyes intelligent will be great for identifying random objects and helping our smart devices to become even smarter, but not so good for keeping your personal life personal," Renate Samson, president of privacy group Big Brother Watch, told the Sun.

Google has acquired Moodstocks, a company that develops machine-learning based object recognition tech for mobile phones. The Paris-based startup will shut down its object recognition Application Programming Interface (API) after its staff joins Mountain View's Parisan R&D team, reports PC World. The purchase was made for an unknown sum, and appears like an acquihire deal. The French technology startup builds photo and object recognition software by employing deep learning techniques. The company produced a visual search API and an Android app that could identify certain kinds of objects.

Google is expanding its pool of machine learning talent with the purchase of a startup that specializes in'instant' smartphone image recognition. On Wednesday, French firm Moodstocks announced on its website that it's being acquired by Google, stating that it expects the deal to be completed in the next few weeks. There's no word yet on how much Google is paying for the company. Moodstocks' "on-device image recognition" software for smartphones will be phased out as it joins Google. Moodstocks' team will also move over to Google's R&D center in Paris, according to Google's French blog.

Moodstocks, a Parisian startup that develops image recognition tools for smartphones, is joining Google. The companies announced the acquisition today, sans financials. Around since 2008, Moodstocks hasn't had considerable traction. But the company has tech and engineers working on machine learning, something Google cannot get enough of as it competes with rivals like Apple and Facebook for talent. And Moodstocks' core service -- "to give eyes to machines by turning cameras into smart sensors," as its parting note described -- fits with Google's vision for image search and augmented reality, where a phone (or something else) knows your physical surroundings. Also, the acquisition price may have been low thanks to wobbling global markets.

As computers around the world get smarter and more powerful, internet heavyweight Google is determined to stay ahead of the game. The company said on Wednesday that it is buying a French artificial intelligence company called Moodstocks that specializes in image recognition. Moodstocks focuses on building image-recognition capabilities into phones, and first introduced software that could do this back in 2012. Over the past two and a half years it has extended its reach into physical object recognition, the company says on its website. Joining forces with Google, Moodstocks said, will allow the company "to deploy our work at scale" and "build great image recognition tools within Google."

Google announced today that it has acquired Paris-based Moodstocks, a startup that has developed machine learning technology to bolster the image recognition features on smartphones. "We continue to pursue our machine learning and research efforts," wrote Vincent Simonet, head of the research and development team for France Google, "and Moodstocks is the latest proof of our commitment to this area." Today, we're thrilled to announce that we've reached an agreement to join forces with Google in order to deploy our work at scale. We expect the acquisition to be completed in the next few weeks. Our focus will be to build great image recognition tools within Google, but rest assured that current paying Moodstocks customers will be able to use it until the end of their subscription.

Google has purchased a French startup by the name of Moodstocks, which specializes in object recognition using a smartphone. It's believed that this acquisition is part of a company effort to boost AI development. Interestingly, as noted in Engadget's report, the technology deployed by Moodstocks is able to utilize the power of the modern smartphone to recognize objects, as opposed to other solutions that require external server computing. It's said Google will absorb the engineering team at Moodstocks at its research and development center in Paris. "Today, we're thrilled to announce that we've reached an agreement to join forces with Google in order to deploy our work at scale. We expect the acquisition to be completed in the next few weeks. Our focus will be to build great image recognition tools within Google, but rest assured that current paying Moodstocks customers will be able to use it until the end of their subscription."