YouTube video-fingerprinting due in September

YouTube will unveil FBI-quality video-fingerprinting technology in September. Well, that's what Google hopes. Or, rather, Google wants a judge to think that's what it hopes.

On Friday, with Google facing a three-pronged copyright trial at a federal court in New York City, a company lawyer told the presiding judge that its YouTube video-sharing site would unveil a long-delayed video recognition system this fall, "hopefully in September." According to the lawyer, Philip Beck, the system will be as sophisticated as fingerprinting technology used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Associated Press reports. That would be the fingerprinting technology the FBI uses for fingerprints - not low-quality web videos.

Google, which purchased YouTube late last year, has long said a high-end video recognition system was in the works, but this is the closest it's come to saying when the thing will actually arrive. Of course, "the fall" is hardly an exact date.The Register