Ukraine Helps Google Recognize Faces

KYIV, Ukraine, October 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Motorola Mobility, acquired by Google in May 2012, closed the deal to purchase Ukrainian IT company Viewdle. The company offers face, object, and gesture recognition technology products, allowing, among other features, an automated photo tagging. Reportedly, Google paid USD 30-45 million for the venture. The company could use face recognition technology in its Picasa service, as well as for Android devices.

This purchase confirms the great IT potential of Ukraine, as well as high professionalism and talent of Ukrainian developers, said Viktoriya Tigipko, Director of TA Venture. Viewdle was created in Kyiv in 2007. It attracted millions of dollars of foreign investment, including money from BlackBerry Partners Fund, states Interfax.

The news excited the worldwide web with Androidcommunity anticipating usage of the face recognition technology in Google Glass - one of the most progressive technology to date in the sector of augmented reality. "Imagine looking at a friend and having the glasses recognize them and tell you key facts such as when their birthday is or what their favorite topics of conversation are," suggests the news website.

Notably, Ukrainian IT outsourcing sector has been reported to boom by Financial Times in August 2012. The Eastern European country earned over USD 1 billion on its IT services export in 2011 alone, stated the paper. Comparably, in Romania the IT outsourcing exports are estimated at USD 586 million, in Poland - USD 451 million, according to Central and Eastern European Outsourcing Association. IT outsourcing market volume in the neighboring Hungary roughly equal USD 475 million.

An estimated 16,000 IT specialists graduate each year in Ukraine. The country boasts the largest pool of engineering resources in Central and Eastern Europe with around 25 percent of the regional IT offshoring market, according to the comment for Financial Times by a CEO of a US-based outsourcing company that employs 1,900 specialists in Ukraine.

Interestingly, in less than two weeks - on October 18-19 - the largest international conference of internet businesses in Central and Eastern Europe arrives to Ukraine's Kyiv. A place for startups and investors to meet and collaborate, the conference will feature such prominent speakers as Adrian Burleton, Studio Moderna COO, Anupam Mittal, People Group CEO, and the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Social Policy Serhiy Tigipko.