Mission's machine learning consulting gig boosts image

A machine learning consulting project helped e-card platform JibJab overcome technical obstacles and launch a product line. The Los Angeles-based company had traditionally offered customers a simple interface and cropping tool to upload photos, capture head images in an oval shape and place them in personalized digital content. That method worked well enough, but JibJab was launching a new offering -- a physical coffee-table book that called for higher-fidelity images. Matt Cielecki, vice president of engineering at JibJab, began exploring machine learning (ML) as the way to boost image quality. He tinkered with pre-trained models but ran into limitations.