Bits and Bytes
THE ANSWER GUY
Picture This by KEVIN MCISAAC
If you’re anything like me, when you first got your smartphone you were downloading apps like crazy. I was constantly amazed at what my phone could do. Then the fascination waned. Eventually, I found I was only using a dozen or so apps with any regularity. And these days I only download an app when it’s to operate something like my Sonos speakers or patio lights. That is until recently when I downloaded the Picture This app. But before I get to that I want to talk about 20 Questions, the game we all played when we were kids. You ask 20 yes or no questions and based on the answers try to guess what the other person is thinking of. Way back in 1988, a developer name Robin Burgener was experimenting with Artificial Intelligence (AI).Yes, AI has been around for more than 30 years. He built a website that could ask you questions and guess what you were thinking. After millions of games, it became extremely proficient at guessing. Because it wasn’t programmed with answers but instead guessed based on how people answered it could even guess correctly when people answered yes or no incorrectly. It was pretty astonishing. Coming back to Picture This, which is a plant guessing app that also uses artificial intelligence. Picture This lets you take a photo of any plant and within a few seconds will tell you what kind of plant it is. Seems simple but when you think that it knows over 10,000 plants which people are going to photograph in a wide variety of circumstances: low light, windy, early in growth, old, bright sunshine, weird angles, etc., it is nothing short of amazing.
V Croome Photo It uses artificial intelligence gleaned from many researchers and millions of tries to become extremely proficient at identifying. If it does guess wrong, and you know the correct name, you can submit the update and make the app even better. I wandered around my property and took it on dog walks. I was very impressed with its ability to differentiate between the many different types of spruce trees we have in the area. Most of them look pretty similar, but it had no problem. Out in the garden, it was a whiz at telling me that the “carrots” I thought were coming up were weeds. It easily identified all the plants in the garden, the flowers in the yard, the trees around the property. It was genuinely fun. It also gives you loads of information about each plant such as edibility, toxicity, etc. It even has a services
button that will help you determine when to water and fertilize your plants. You can get Picture This from the Google Play store and the Apple App Store. When you install it it will tell you that you have a one-week trial and then it will charge you a subscription after that. If you don’t want to do that, look for a small x-icon in the upper right corner and close that window. Now you can use it for free. The free version limits the number of plants you can identify. If you opt for the trial, you can cancel the subscription within six days and pay nothing. A good way to check it out. A full subscription is $40 a year. Which is pretty inexpensive if you’re a serious gardener or plant nut. FERNIEFIX.COM
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