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mhhf1ve
6/6/2017 10:01:14 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
JohnB - agreed, and there are robots that are already training to recognize all kinds of items. Amazon is actively developing computer vision systems for warehouse picking robots.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/538601/inside-amazons-warehouse-human-robot-symbiosis/
But... it's not an easy problem. I'm not sure when robots will have the same recognition of fruit as humans...
srufolo1
6/6/2017 10:07:35 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
@mhhf1ve The bananas and apples don't have to be cumbersome because you can use a scanning gun as you go along. So you weigh the produce and then scan the bar code before you get to the checkout line. My bone of contention is people who use the self-checkout that don't have a clue and hold up the entire line! And I agree there will always have to be a few humans around to check that no one is stealing, for instance, and so you can cash in your bottle recycling tickets. Employees are probably good for other things too.
srufolo1
6/6/2017 10:11:28 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
@JohnBarnes I agree. It will take a lot of training for these robots to tell the difference between a peach and an apricot or an apple and a pear. Besides learning how these fruits look, they will have to learn how to taste the difference. Can they be trained to do that, I wonder?
JohnBarnes
6/6/2017 11:02:10 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
srufolo1,
It's not necessarily any harder than telling the difference between a paper bag or a toy balloon blowing across the road and linking that to the probability of a pursuing toddler.
I'm guessing we'll get tech that smells more than it tastes the food -- but right now there are detectors for plenty of airborne chemicals. It will be an interesting optimization problem to figure out what 10, or 20, or 50 airborne trace chemicals you have to sniff for -- but again, that's the kind of problem data science/AI/machine learning is made for.
Like so many new and revolutionary technologies, people seem to overestimate the short run and drastically underestimate the long run. Mechanical and electronic reproduction of music was a long time coming and still something of a novelty when my grandfather was young, adn that was decades after Edison and Marconi. But I live in a world where people prettymuch have any music they want wherever and whenever they want it. Refrigerators were invented before the Civil War, and remained luxuries till well past World War II, but they've completely revolutionized our diets now. (Whether we live on fresh produce year round or can always thaw out another greasy breaded freezer snack!)
JohnBarnes
6/6/2017 11:12:18 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
srufolo1,
Though machines are harder to bribe, don't get bored and fall asleep with their eyes open, and could probably be given a reasonable set of criteria to describe behaviors that were suspicious and required intervention ("Shopper in produce aisle who has just put a bunch of bananas under your sweater, please take them out and plan to pay for them. You have been recorded and tracking and facial recognition will allow us to report your likely identity to the police if necessary."
Also, come to think of it, that robot won't get bored and decide to tackle a shoplifter and create the grounds for a lawsuit.
The biggest advantage humans have is that some people prefer their company, and would rather talk to Fred the butcher than to F2E0 the meat dispenser. That may not always be the case; right now self-service checkout is cranky, obnoxious, prone to breakdowns. Eventually it's more likely to say "please place your basket of items here. I'll unpack and bag them. Any special bagging instructions?" and will know about such things as not crushing eggs, bread, or tomatoes, making sure meat is positioned not to leak, etc. Eventually you may decide you like F2E0's accuracy and efficiency (and not having to be nice to it) more than you like Fred's corny jokes and nosy questions, even if he does really understand what "thin even slices" are (especially because F2E0 will understand that better).
mhhf1ve
6/7/2017 12:33:54 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
There's also the chance that live video streaming will become more widespread-- and then remote humans will compete (or train/augment) the robots that people will interact with. So a remote human can help scan your groceries with a video chat app built into the checkout machine.
afwriter
6/7/2017 12:34:47 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
"I assume that's how fast food might evolve, too... you order your food on an app.. and then a drive-thru vending machine just spits it out to you when you arrive."
@mhhf1ve it worked in Star Trek
srufolo1
6/7/2017 4:52:25 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
@JohnBarnes Yes, I agree that technology is advancing far more quickly than it has since before the Civil War, or even after the Industrial Revolution. It's not to say that certain technologies could have been in place years before they were, it was a matter of economics. When I attended the 1964 World's Fair in New York, we were amazed by just a blender making peanut butter out of peanuts. And the GE Futuruma and Westinghouse exhibits showed and talked about things that are just happening more than 50 years later. The technology was there, it just was not implemented.
srufolo1
6/7/2017 4:54:39 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
@JohnBarnes I see that kind of accuracy by any machine a long way off. As humans, we will always crave the company of others. Machines are cold.
mhhf1ve
6/7/2017 7:39:09 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Virtualization connecting with AI and Big Data
> "it worked in Star Trek"
Ha! Except they had Replicators that could make almost anything (except alcohol?) in seconds.
I'm thinking more along the lines of a pizza-making robot:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/artisanal-pizza-made-by-bruno-the-robot-and-other-true-tales-of-automated-food/2016/10/31/2ba482dc-9a0d-11e6-b3c9-f662adaa0048_story.html?utm_term=.e46668d0d7c0
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