Technical aid for sock detection

In the Times this morning (read it here if you do not believe me) is an article about a cheese -eating-sock-thief detection aid. Well, they don't call it that but you and I know that that is what it is. A Mr Kuniyoshi has invented Smart Goggles. These are glasses with a camera built onto them linked to 'the world's most advanced object recognition software and a computer that can learn the identity of new objects within seconds'. The idea is that you wander around your house teaching it things....

...Car Keys

...letter for posting

...packet of sashiko needles

...young child

etc.

Then, when you can't find the item you ask the computer and it replays the last time you saw it so you can retrace your steps and find it.

Now, admittedly the system is not yet flawless. I would need the upgraded version where it is linked to CCTV in the house so that I can use the glasses to identify the last time I saw the item and then watch the tapes for the thief to come and take it. Plus the education process could be boring:

...sock with green cable pattern

...black sock with zig zag pattern

....black sock with stripe pattern

But think of the possibilties for Quilt shows. You know how you see some fabric at 9am and decide to find it again later in the afternoon but can't recall which stall it was on?

....batik with a kind of smudgy orange giving way to lime greenish diamondy type thingies....

or for those mega quick demonstrations of technique

... the bit where she put the foundation paper upside down and to the left or maybe the right and did something with the needle tension.

or the use in medical waiting areas where you are both bored to tears and in need of cheering up

...that episode of WestWing where CK had dental surgery and couldn't say Foggy Bottom

No doubt you can think of your own applications. In the meantime, until the prototype is for sale on Amazon, I will concentrate on trying to work out how to make a quilt using 14 odd socks. It will be possible somehow.......!