I just installed the update and it’s only about 2% complete with the initial “face” scan.  I have 92,000 pictures, so it will probably take all night to go through them.

As the program identifies new faces, a new icon is added to the “scanned pictures” group.  Type a new name under one of these pictures and Picasa begins to group other pictures of this person under the same name.  If the program is unsure of a picture (some of my kids look like each other) the pictures have a “check” and “X” under them so they can be easily added or removed from a group.  If there is a large number of picture you wish to move to another group, the click-shift-click method will highlight a large number of photos.  A context sensitive right-click offers options on re-assigning the pictures to another group.

I see some useful applications for this already.  I have photos of every freshman who has taken my edtech class for the last four years.  I could build a database of these students and then as other people in the college take photographs, we could sort them by person.  Wouldn’t it be great if every senior could be given a personalized set of photos showing all the major events of a college education?  I think we are getting close.

Above is a picture I took for Buzz.  He has converted all of his overhead transparencies to PowerPoint slides by having me photograph each picture.  Then he creates a slide from each picture in PowerPoint.

The whole process is actually very low tech.  We use a white piece of foam core on Buzz’s desk.  He holds the foam core at an angle so we don’t get a shadow from the lights in the ceiling.  I snap a picture.  Picasa does the rest.

In the Tuning tab of Picasa is a Highlights adjustment.  By cranking this up, all the edges of the paper and shadows go away and leave only the black ink behind.  It’s literally that easy.  I export the picture and it’s finished about ten times faster than a scanner could do.

Now if I could only figure out who this Sherman character is.

Here’s where it gets interesting.  After names are associated with faces, any picture that is opened will list the people in the photo.  Mouse-over a face and Picasa identifies the person.

This adds a new dimension to searching.  I did a query on all the pictures with Me and Kayla.  This photo came to the top of the list.

Before you add names to all your pictures, consider the privacy settings.  When you enter information about a person, the data includes nickname, full name and email address.  By default, only the nickname associated with a photo shows up on the public side.

Considering the way pictures are identified by current search engines, this new feature of Picasa is a potential game-changer.  I cannot wait for this feature to be added to the desktop version of Picasa.  I have about 50,000 pictures that it can tag.

In addition to better Picasa integration, gMail and gReader have also been tweaked for the Touch.  I still need the “open in a new window” option for the browser, but I am finding the portable browser to be so convenient, I use it more than my laptop.  It turns on in a couple of seconds and can do everything except Flash. 

More later…