We were inspired to work on a project that saves the environment and is accessible to all people. Humans spend so much time on their mobiles and on the internet, we were inspired to make an AI app that works through both systems to encourage people to recycle.
The app works on identifying whether an object is recyclable or not. By using the camera, people can point it to the object and they will know if it is or not. The same AI system can be put in large machines in factories to help them recycle their wastes.
We have built the app by collecting about 5000 pictures of objects that are both recyclable and not, and we left everything else to the algorithm to grow itself and understand. It now can do it and learn from previous data collected for more efficiency later.
One of the main challenges we ran into was to collect the pictures of the object to make a database for the project. We have searched, took pictures, and asked for some. It took us about three months to end up with good-quality pictures.
We shared the project at an international conference in China, called IAIF and shared out thoughts. It went well and we won with our idea.
We mainly learned to stay positive no matter what and hope for the best. We surely learned to be patient and don't rush the results. We have also learned to try and stay passionate even if we fail. The teamwork atmosphere made us all confident and happy with what we are doing.
We are still developing the AI system to decrease any inaccuracy in the system as much as possible. We are also sending to sponsors for the idea and developers to help us improve the app more and more. We want the idea to go big, everywhere. We really hope recycling becomes a habit for everybody.
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