Revolutionizing Content Recommendations with AR: Taboola Zoom Hackathon Win
Imagine being able to get relevant content about any object you see just by pointing your phone camera at it. This may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but it was actually the winning idea at the recent Taboola R&D hackathon called Taboola Zoom.
Every year, Taboola hosts a hackathon for its engineers to come up with innovative ideas for potential products or fun experiments. This year, 33 teams competed, and one team stood out with their idea for an AR (Augmented Reality) application that provides content recommendations based on objects captured by a phone camera.
The app works by sending a screenshot of the captured video to a remote server, which processes the image using computer vision technologies. It then searches for web articles related to the object and displays them in a widget on the user’s screen. Users can click on the widget to read the full article in their browser.
The technology behind the app involves various components such as a web application, computer vision service, and a database of articles. The team utilized HTML5, WebRTC API, Canvas API, Google’s Inception model, and Taboola’s internal database to bring their idea to life.
Despite the complexity of the project, the team of five people managed to develop the app in under 36 hours. The app showcases the potential of AR and AI technologies and serves as a reminder of the exciting possibilities in these domains.
If you want to experience the app for yourself, you can visit https://zoom.taboola.com on your phone (using Chrome on Android or Safari on iOS). While this version is a pre-alpha hackathon project, it gives a glimpse of what could be possible in the future.
The team behind this innovative app – Amir Keren, Yoel Zeldes, Elina Revzin, Aviv Rotman, and Ofri Mann – deserves recognition for their hard work and creativity. Their project demonstrates that with the right tools and a good idea, anything is possible.
In conclusion, the Taboola Zoom project is a testament to the power of collaboration, creativity, and cutting-edge technology. It serves as an inspiration for others to explore new ideas and push the boundaries of what is possible. So, next time you have a cool idea, gather your team and have your own private hackathon – you never know what amazing things you might create!