Tag Archives: computer vision

It looks like Google, with their project Starline, are addressing the future of video calling. Some 20 years ago Cisco came up with an innovative (that was 20 years ago!) solution that radically improved on videoconferencing by setting up an environment that gave the impression, through video and sound, of …

I stumble on this news, that actually is an old one, as I was looking for new application of Augmented Reality. It goes back a long way, to 2015, when it was presented at CHI, the Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems, I had the pleasure of hosting when …

Harvesting crops (and fruits…) used to make up to 40% of the total cost of farming. This is no longer so, thanks to automation. Robotic machines, ever more powerful, and smart, are not just taking the labour off this activity, they are slashing cost. They are so effective that we …

Since humans understood they could plan for “food” through agriculture and livestock the surface of our planet has changed. Some species have spread to become dominant, like rice, wheat, barley … and chicken, cattle, pigs … As shown in the graph, 50% of habitable land is now dedicated to “food”, …

Being locked down at home, courtesy of the epidemic, I spent a few hours trying out a number of apps I downloaded on my smartphone that claim to be able to recognise objects in the surrounding using the smartphone camera and some sort of AI. Overall I had fun, but …

I don’t know about you but I often wonder as I am talking on the phone to a person I never met how that person would look like. Is the voice pointing to a specific age, to some specific traits? Of course it is in general easy to tell a …

Nature has evolved an impressive variety of eyes, not just in shape but also in characteristics. You may want to take a look at this wonderful article, from where I extracted the photos of a variety of eyes, to “see” what animals can “see”. I found it an amazing and …

Ever walked in an orchard and, feeling a bit like Adam, picked up a nice apple? What could be easier than that. You see the tree, all the nice apples hanging around, you just need to choose the one looking nicer, and probably tastier , stretch your arm and you …

The same company I discussed yesterday in relation to the wind turbine tower inspection, Clobotics, is also engaged in developing a system to help retailers get an up to date inventory of their shelves. Clearly, tags and other IoTs could do the job but these technologies are not easy to …

Some years ago I was involved in evaluating the possibility to use drones to inspect telecommunications infrastructures, namely radio antennas. This is a time consuming job but it turned out the the regulation at the time was enforcing the tethering of the drone (in Italy) and the resolution of the …