Maker Faire has always been not only a chance to see things made by passionate community members but also an opportunity to experience cutting edge technology as it is explored by the brilliant people around you. I can remember going to Maker Faires and seeing the evolution of the cheap desktop 3d printer first hand. Now, we have the opportunity to see similar growing and exploring in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Get yourself to World Maker Faire New York September 22nd-23rd, and you’ll have a chance to see people making some incredible things. Here are just a few examples of the AI based projects that we expect to have there.
DIY Robocars
We’ll have a racetrack set up for DIY Robocars, a group of hobbyists making and racing pro-level autonomous cars on a budget. That means they are smaller than regular cars (from go-kart size down to 1/16th scale) and can be used indoors.
Don’t let their size fool you though, small doesn’t mean dumb. This is some cutting edge software and computing.
Raspberry Pi Party Monitor
This is a system designed to run on Raspberry Pi that can monitor a whole party for you, from controlling the lock on the front door to using machine learning to count the number of people and detect various things like smoking. One example of use might be using this as an additional way to an eye on teens at a party to make sure they don’t get out of control.
the Winning Bago
The Power Wheels Racing Series, a staple at Maker Faires across the world is also exploring autonomous racing. This entry, the “Winning Bago” is particularly interesting because it can be raced by a person, then switched over to autonomous mode for the AI races!
Presence
By letting a computer study eyes looking at a screen, they’ve managed to create a very accurate eye tracking system using a neural network. This system is displayed here as a form of art called Presence, allowing the computer to shift and change this physical display based on the gaze of the person viewing.
Marvin, the connect 4 game
Do you want to play a game? Of course you do, but lets skip on the thermonuclear war for a bit and maybe play some connect 4. “Marvin” has played thousands of games of connect 4 and is now ready to take on even the most skilled opponent at Maker Faire.
This is just a taste, there’s no telling what you’ll bump into at the New York Hall of Science during Maker Faire. Get your tickets now so you don’t miss out on experiencing the early days of AI
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