AI Case Study

"Oscar is a trash-sorting system with a 32-inch display and AI-powered camera that recognizes the items in your hand and tells you how to properly dispose of them. Approach with a Thai noodle box, for example, and it will tell you to throw the remaining food into compost and put the box in the trash.

Succeed in sorting your garbage and Oscar can say “Good job!,” shower the screen with confetti, and share a QR code for some sort of perk, like a movie ticket or food discount. Get it wrong and Oscar can be a real grouch, making sounds of disapproval and displaying a dark red screen with a sign that calls you out for the mistake.

Oscar was created by Intuitive AI, a startup with plans to sell its solution to corporate social responsibility teams and property managers in busy settings such as airports, universities, and large corporate campuses.

Oscar sorts trash using a computer vision system currently being tested in an airport in Vancouver, Canada as well as places like Simon Fraser University. A solution for residential settings is also being explored with the cities of Toronto and Vancouver, Intuitive AI CEO Hassan Murad said during a presentation at Deep Learning Summit held last week in San Francisco.

Jokingly referred to as WasteNet inside the company, thousands of images of garbage that can be sorted into hundreds of categories was collected through dumpster diving. The system is being trained to recognize trash items from partially visible visual cues, like when a person’s hand is grasping a Coke can or a crumpled-up bag of chips, Murad said."