Inspiration
Our inspiration for this project was influenced by our time at the hackathon itself. As we were brainstorming ideas, we noticed that there was a lot of trash lying on the tables of the groups working. There were candy wrappers, fortune cookie packaging, and juice packets all just lying on the tables and floors. The organizers often had to remind groups to pick up and throw away their trash. With this reminder, they would often just toss all their waste into the trash bin, even though some of the waste belonged in recycling or compost. This made us wonder, what if there was a simple solution to stop waste displacement? What if we could use AI to classify the waste and help the users know which bin to put their waste in? That is when we thought of our simple, accessible, and effective solution. Eco-Bin.
What it does
Our AI trash bin uses CreateML and object detection to categorize trash. After categorizing the garbage, it opens the trash bin door of the waste category. This prevents the user from misplacing their waste.
How we built it
We used corrugated cardboard to build the exoskeleton of our product. We used three servo motors to open the doors. Hot glue was used to connect everything.
Challenges we ran into
The machine-learning engine was very hit-or-miss. It detected some objects with high accuracy and others it failed to identify.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re proud of our ability to come up with an idea, figure out how to implement it, and build our product within the 24-hour.
What we learned
Software, Programming in Python, Machine Learning. Creating data sets for Machine Learning models.
What's next for Eco Bin
We were making our lid customizable so it could fit on several different trashcans and not just one size like we currently have.
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