Filed under: Computers
Well, you can add one more thing to the long list of tasks that computers can complete better than a human: jigsaw puzzle solving.
Taeg Sang Cho and his colleagues at the MIT aren’t the first to write jigsaw puzzle-solving software; a Danish team wrote a program that was able to solve a 320-piece puzzle back in 2008. While the older program only worked on simple “cartoon-style” drawings with a limited color palette, Cho’s program can solve puzzles created from complex images (like landscape photographs), and handle an almost unlimited number of colors. Cho’s creation recently solved a world record-setting puzzle with 400 pieces, beating the previous effort for computerized jigsaw solving (yes, apparently there are records for such an achievement). Previous software used standard jigsaw shapes that give additional clues to placement. Cho’s method (.PDF) used simple squares, forcing the AI to rely entirely on color and pattern recognition.
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Jigsaw Puzzle-Solving Computer Makes Us Feel Inadequate originally appeared on Switched on Sun, 23 May 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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