A crow aims to solve the problem of littering by "Crowbar" where bait comes when putting cigarette butts of cigarette

bySteve Herring

In the Netherlands where littering of cigarette butts has become a problem, attempts have been made to utilize the learning ability of crows to solve problems. A device multiplied by technology and animal's intelligence to have the crow's pick up the cigarette by using a machine like a vending machine that the food comes out when crows put the cigarette butts "CrowbarIt is under development.

Crowded Cities - Training Crows
http://www.crowdedcities.com/


Netherlands that 6 billion cigarette cigarette butts are abandoned in the road every year. It is easy to throw away the cigarette butt cigarette into the way, but since the cigarette filter is made of plastic fiber, it takes ten years to decompose naturally. The fact that picking up 6 billion cigarette butts by hand is a tremendous task, so two designers, Ruben van der Vleuten and Bob Spikman, said "a crow should pick up cigarettes" I thought of thinking.

The idea of ​​having crows pick up cigarettes is realized in the following way.

A crow that added cigarettes to the equipment called "Crowbar" installed in the city visits and drops the cigarette butt to the Crowbar.


When the Crowbar recognizes the cigarette butts on the camera, the bait is dropped on the table in front of the crow.


If you learn that food will always come out of the equipment, the crows will collect the cigarette butts repeatedly. Whether the crow that ate the bait is teaching the existence of the Crowbar to the fellow crow is a matter of unaware of whether it is secret only for yourself, but as the existence of Crowbar spreads to the crow, it can be said that collecting the cigarette butt of many cigarettes Is possible.


Crowbar's idea is a vending machine for crowsCrow BoxHe was inspired by Joshua Klein, a hacker and writer who developed. In the TED's speech, Mr. Klein said that the technology of Crow Box also allows crows to pick up garbage in the stadium, to search expensive parts from waste, to search for the victimsI mentioned that it could be applied. Crowbar is one of the things that Mr. Klein's proposal was embodied.

This is the design drawing of Crowbar.


A system that recognizes cigarette butts.


You can see it as testing the software.


This is the hardware. It is not noisy even if it is set up in the city, it is chic and modern design.



Crows are known for the height of intelligence that can use tools, and Crowbar uses crow 's intelligence. You can check how much the crow uses the tool with the following movie.

Are crows the ultimate problem solvers? - Inside the Animal Mind - BBC - YouTube


In the movie published by BBC, there are cases where food is placed at the far left of the screen, three cages with stones in the middle, a mechanism to take a long bar on the right, a small bar from the ceiling I will.


In the leftmost case, the crow's food is sandwiched between two transparent plates. You can not take out the food by inserting the beak, you need to take out the long stick from the set on the right side of the set.


I will put a crow in this set.


At the beginning of entering the set, the situation can not be read, and the crow moves around wandering without doing anything.


After that, first extract a short stick ... ...


I insert it in the case of the feed, but it does not reach it.


So I will try to take the stone from the cage this time.


I also got a stone from the second cage.


Put the stone into a mechanism with a long stick.


With three places ......


I got a long stick that fell.


I succeeded in attracting superb food using a long stick.



About Crowbar, do research on wild animals at the University of WashingtonJohn MarzluffThe professor says that "Crows will learn instantly and use Crowbar", but while watching people cigarettes in their mouths, crows thinking "possibility of being food" In addition to being considered, it is also pointed out that health damage is caused by using cigarette butts for making nests instead of insecticides. Also from the ethical point of view of the idea of ​​enslaving crows to pick up garbage on behalf of humansIt shows the opposite direction.

Regarding health damage of the crow, two designers have said "the contact time with the cigarette is short, the influence can be kept to a minimum," and "If you find that it has a bad influence on the crow, you need to think about another solution There is. " In addition, the idea of ​​Crowbar is not only to use crows, but also to change the consciousness of human cigarette but eventually to reduce itself.