Google gets facial recognition with PittPatt acquisition

Google has acquired Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, better known as PittPatt, bringing the company's facial recognition technology into its arsenal.

As is often the case for Google acquisitions, the deal was confirmed by the company's website in a statement indicating how excited the PittPatt team is to join up with the search giant. Between Image Search, Picasa, YouTube, and Google Goggles, PittPatt says its approach to facial recognition is a "natural fit" for Google, and that this was going to bring the company's research and technology to an even wider audience.

While specifics are vague, here's what PittPatt has to say about its future in that statement:

We will continue to tap the potential of computer vision in applications that range from simple photo organization to complex video and mobile applications.

PittPatt was the result of research at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute in the 1990s, leading to the formation of Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition in 2004. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

A Google spokesperson offered the following comment on the PittPatt acquisition:

“The Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition team has developed innovative technology in the area of pattern recognition and computer vision. We think their research and technology can benefit our users in many ways, and we look forward to working with them.”

My personal guess is that we're going to first see PittPatt's technology integrated into Google+ before it arrives anywhere else within the company. But only time will tell.