[RonS]

An internet friend has been defrauded out of a one of a kind sword which is very distinctive and for which several photographs exist. The hope is that the thief will post it on an auction site. I would like to know if there is software available that will search the internet for matching images so that we can find the low life scum who would steal from a widow. Any pointers toward free image matching software would be appreciated as the victim is not wealthy and neither am I or most of her other friends.

I am going to post a link to the forum in question in the knife forum if you are interested in seeing the sword or hearing the rest of the story.

[solomansousana]

if you go to yahoo.com, then click on images, then input a specific description of the sword, yahoo will scour the web for matches. This presumes the thief will advertise it with specific description.

A fellow RN had his unlocked cellphone that hadn't been turned on with any cellphone company stolen out of his car in the hospital parking lot and he got it back because he did keep a seperate record of it's serial and simm numbers, but also the fact that he had it customized with a Miami Dolphin skin with his name on the back, and any attempt to remove the skin would have left severe blemishes. He did the search with yahoo images and input Blackberry etc.... with miami dolphin skin and found it the 2nd day it had been missing and it's now back home with him.

Good luck on your search, I hope they catch the scum.

[havensal]

I'm not much into swards, but if I see it, I'll let you know.

[jdm0506]

You could try tineye.com. It takes an image as input and tries to find matches. It gives the URL of the matches. Apparently it's able to find modified versions of the input image as well. It's not exactly super effective at this point. The amount of the web that it's crawled thus far is relatively limited. But it's worth a try.

[jdm0506]

ugh. i don't know what happened to my response from last night. anyways... i suggest trying to use tineye. it is an online search site that accepts an image as the "query". it will give a listing of web addresses that have the image. it's apparently able to find modified versions of the image as well. it's a great tool, but as of right now, the scope of the web that it searches is pretty limited. of course, they're always taking suggestions for the next website for them to crawl. they also have a plugin that integrates into your browser. so if you're browsing a forum like glocktalk, and find an image you like, you can right click on the image and find the search option.

[RonS]

thanks