Google can help you find your pet Doppelganger in a work of art — and we've tried it

Google can help you find your pet Doppelganger in a work of art — and we've tried it

Three years ago, Google updated its Arts and Culture app to allow users to find their likenesses hidden in paintings around the world. Having mastered that, Google is now trying to replace skin with scales, fur, and feathers so pet owners can find their animals in the art world.

"When you take a picture with your pet's portrait, our trained computer vision algorithms recognize where your pet is, crop the image, and place them where they belong: front and center," said Google Arts and Culture's Product Manager Michelle Luo explained in a post on The Keyword blog.

"Once that's done, a machine learning algorithm matches your pet's photo with tens of thousands more artworks from our partners' outstanding collections to find the most similar ones."

To get in on the action, simply download the app for Android or iOS and tap the rainbow-colored camera button at the bottom of the screen. You can then upload an image from your camera roll or snap your pet in real time.

The 2018 selfie update required the use of a VPN to access at launch in 2018, but the pet update was available immediately. And with three feline colleagues sharing my home office space, I figured it was about time they earned their keep and contributed to my freelance writing career by posing for a few shots.

Here's the brand. It's a big, hard-to-snap furball, but it's a 94% match for the "Love Potion" you'll see in the de Morgan collection. Given that he is also from London, he probably believes himself to have more in common with Lot's of Luck.

Next up is Hamilton, who, as you can see from the photo, would not be amused if he had to wear the red ribbon on display in "Pets" at the National Academy of Design. It would also be equally insulting to be equated with the hanging scroll on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Last but not least is Ripley. Sure, she has more dark hair on her face, but I have definitely seen her do both of these looks before.

Kudos to Google; look for the #PetPortraits hashtag on both Instagram and Twitter and you'll find more examples.

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