Finally, the robots have found a way to improve our lives. Photo: Courtesy of Brian Horne/Oregon State University.
Tired of having to throw out mushy avocados? Artificial intelligence is here to help.
Researchers at Oregon State University developed a smartphone-based AI tool to help predict ripeness for the fruit, which has a notoriously brief window of peak quality.
What they're saying: "Our goal was to create a tool that helps consumers and retailers make smarter decisions about when to use or sell avocados," Luyao Ma, an assistant professor at OSU and frequent consumer of avocado toast, said in a statement.
Ma and a team of researchers trained an AI model using roughly 1,400 images of Hass avocados.
The system predicted firmness with 92% accuracy and internal quality with 84% accuracy, per a recently published study.
What we're watching: No word on when an avocado ripeness indicator app will be available to us common folk.
🏆 Pro tip: You can refrigerate your avocados to stop ripening.
True story from Asher: At my wedding I tried to start a custom called "The Cutting of the Avocado."
Following our vows, I presented an avocado and briefly explained that the quality of the inside would presage our lives together. I then cut it in half and held aloft both halves.
Fortunately, they looked terrific — perfectly green and creamy and firm.
Yes, but:Very surprisingly this tradition hasn't caught on.
