An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Northeastern have built a device that can recognize « millions of colors » using new artificial intelligence techniques—a massive step, they say, in the field of machine vision, .
October 6, 2022
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Northeastern have built a device that can recognize « millions of colors » using new artificial intelligence techniques—a massive step, they say, in the field of machine vision, a highly specialized space with broad applications for a range of technologies.
The machine, which researchers call « A-Eye, » is capable of analyzing and processing color far more accurately than existing machines, according to a paper detailing the research published in Materials Today. The ability of machines to detect, or « see, » color is an increasingly important feature as industry and society more broadly becomes more automated, says Swastik Kar, associate professor of physics at Northeastern and co-author of the research.
« In the world of automation, shapes and colors are the most commonly used items by which a machine can recognize objects, » Kar says.
The breakthrough is twofold. Researchers were able to engineer two-dimensional material whose special quantum properties, when built into an optical window used to let light into the machine, can process a rich diversity of color with « very high accuracy »—something practitioners in the field haven’t been able to achieve before.
Additionally, A-Eye is able to « accurately recognize and reproduce ‘seen’ colors with zero deviation from their original spectra » thanks, also, to the machine-learning algorithms developed by a team of AI researchers, helmed by Sarah Ostadabbas, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern.
