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AI robot learns to solve 'Where's Waldo?' books

By T.K. Randall
August 16, 2018 · Comment icon 4 comments

Now you can find Waldo in less than five seconds. Image Credit: YouTube / redpepper
A robotic arm has been programmed using artificial intelligence to locate the hard-to-spot cartoon character.
Almost everyone will have pored over the pages of one of English illustrator Martin Handford's popular "Where's Waldo?" books at some point in their lives, but now thanks to AI, the process of locating the titular character has been rendered practically effortless.

Developed by the creative ad agency Redpepper, this remarkable robotic contraption is powered by Google's machine learning service and can recognize Waldo's face on the page within five seconds.
"'There's Waldo' is a prototype we put together to test the capabilities of Google's new AutoML Vision (Auto Machine Learning) service", said Redpepper creative technologist Matt Reed.

"We provide innovation services to our clients so in order to understand the capabilities of the latest tech we usually try to put together prototypes like this that showcase the possibilities."

A video showing the robot in action can be viewed below.



Source: CNBC | Comments (4)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by paperdyer 7 years ago
Isn't this just facial recognition software?  The robot scans a picture of Walso then scans the page looking for a match.
Comment icon #2 Posted by Seti42 7 years ago
Finding Waldo isn't AI, IMO. It's essentially the same as a bar code scanner. Or the annoying firmware in point and shoot cameras that auto focuses on a 'face'. 
Comment icon #3 Posted by Antnanna 7 years ago
It missed the Waldo in the left top corner of the last page. Guess it needs 2 hands.
Comment icon #4 Posted by Antnanna 7 years ago
Correction, every page had that picture in the corner and it went for the mass picture only. Still need 2 hands. Wonder how it would work with people that have changing facial expressions and wardrobe.


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