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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday October 10 2017, @03:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the articles-for-the-birds dept.

Spotted at Hackaday is a story on positive reinforcement to train crows to pick up litter:

A Dutch startup wants to teach the crow population to pick up cigarette butts in exchange for bird treats.

The whole Corvidae family of birds is highly intelligent so it shouldn’t be a problem training them that they will get a reward for depositing something the Hominidae family regularly throw on the street where the birds live. This idea is in turn an evolution of the open-source Crow Box.

For some, leveraging the intelligence of animals is more appealing than programming drones which could do the same thing. A vision system mixed with a drone and a manipulator could fulfull[sic] the same function but animals are self-repairing and autonomous without our code. The irony of this project is that, although it's probably fairly easy to train crows to recognize cigarette butts, the implementation hinges on having a vision system that can recognize the butts in order to properly train the crows in the first place.


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  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @05:51PM (4 children)

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Tuesday October 10 2017, @05:51PM (#579925)

    I don't care about smoking outside as long as you are not clogging up narrow sidewalks or standing next to doorways. (Which always happens when it gets cold out.)

    The issue is smoker's throwing butts on th ground. And don't claim you don't do it. Every smoker I have ever seen does it when there is no cigarette safe container nearby. Finished one in the car? Out the window.

    Stomp it out on the ground then throw it in the trash, no problem. I have never seen someone pick up a stomped butt.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:39PM

    by frojack (1554) on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:39PM (#579954) Journal

    The issue is smoker's throwing butts on the ground. And don't claim you don't do it. Every smoker I have ever seen does it when there is no cigarette safe container nearby. Finished one in the car? Out the window.

    Exactly.

    I can usually avoid smoking zones, those smoking stations (marked by the Butt disposal pylons) invariably are littered with butts, not to mention the ash flicked off at random and tracked into the establishment. But the filters persist in the environment for decades.
    https://www.thoughtco.com/are-cigarette-butts-biodegradable-1204105 [thoughtco.com]
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/15/ban-cigarette-filters-hazardous-tobacco-waste [theguardian.com]
    http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_1/i25 [bmj.com]

    But The Buzzard doesn't smoke filtered Cigs, so even though he admits to tossing the butts on the ground, and doesn't lobby loudly for publicly funded health care, he expects to be above reproach.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday October 10 2017, @11:58PM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 10 2017, @11:58PM (#580169) Journal

    Every smoker I have ever seen does it when there is no cigarette safe container nearby. Finished one in the car? Out the window

    I don't - I have the pack of ciggies I took it from - the but fits back there if I don't find a trash can.

    So long for your claim of every smoker - one counterexample is enough to demolish an absolute generalization.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by t-3 on Wednesday October 11 2017, @12:55AM (1 child)

      by t-3 (4907) on Wednesday October 11 2017, @12:55AM (#580190)

      When I used to smoke (switched to vaping, still smoke occasionally if I'm drinking though), I would do this, but always field strip the butt first - the ash and stale smoke smell would ruin the rest of the pack for me if I put it back in without stripping it.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:38AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:38AM (#580212) Journal

        I would do this, but always field strip the butt first - the ash and stale smoke smell would ruin the rest of the pack for me if I put it back in without stripping it.

        Pretty much doing the same, but rather to make sure I'm not putting some embers in my pocket (I'm no longer that sensible to the taste/smell of the ciggies - I'm beyond the point in which I consider smoking a pleasure).

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford