The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has been a growing concern globally for quite some time yet there doesn’t seem to be any improvement on the amount being dumped in the sea. Annually, 1.4 billion pounds of trash ends up in our ocean and sadly much of it is plastic. 
Did you know that 80% of the trash that can be found in our landfills is recyclable? Around 1 in every 4 items, we put in our recycling bins isn’t actually recyclable, so it contaminates what can be recycled and ends up in a landfill. Furthermore, the world recycles only 9% of plastic it uses, so guess where the rest goes? You guessed it, into our beautiful ocean.
Fortunately, there are companies out there that understand the growing concern and taking initiatives to improve the planet. One of them is Autonomous who created Oscar the AI powered trash can. Oscar sorts your recycling for you by using custom neural networks to sort your garbage into two compartments, recyclable and non-recyclable.
Oscar’s “image recognition system” uses a digital camera and multiple LED lights to classify your trash. I doesn’t recognize a piece of trash, he’ll flash red. Oscar is Wi-Fi enabled, in order to get him online you will need to get the Oscar App.
A unique feature about Oscar is that you can show him what is recyclable or non-recyclable. Oscar then logs this new information and shares it with the entire AI network. This does raise one question, what if you don’t want Oscar sharing your trash over the network. Is there a way to program him to not do that?
Oscar has motion sensors and can sense when you’re about to throw something away. The lid of the trash can then will automatically open up for you to discard your trash. This feature is great as it eliminates the number of germs you can get from a trash can lid.
With the focus on the sustainable use of natural materials Oscar’s casing is made of biodegradable cardboard skin. Below are more of Oscar’s Featured Specs:
- Classifying capsule
- Biodegradable cardboard skin
- Capsule dimension: 8in (length) x 7in (width) x 8in (height)
- Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz
- Wi-Fi 5 GHz
- Top AI camera: 640 x 480 resolution, Sony IMX219 sensor
- In-capsule camera: 2MP, 640 x 480 resolution, distance: 15 – 20cm
- In-capsule noise sensor
- Power: 110 – 220 Voltage
- Language: English
- Body’s dimension: 22in (length) x 14in (width) x 27in (height)
- Bins’ dimension: 10.5in (length) x 12.5in (width) x 15in (height)
- Volume: 1000 oz for each bin
Oscar was just launched on Kickstarter with a deal of 65% OFF for the first 50 Super Early Birds ($249) on Kickstarter. The packages on Kickstarter range from $299.00 to $699.00. To purchase Oscar or to back him on Kickstarter please click here.
For more information about Oscar please visit: https://www.autonomous.ai/oscar.
###
Source: Oscar, Kickstarter, USA Today, 4Ocean.com
