“The system learns how to see pictures like a child recognizing an object for the first time,” says Christian Liensberger, lead principal program manager of Trove, a Microsoft Garage project. To date, it has obtained about 200 useful images. TechTics is seeking to eventually collect 2,000 photos via Trove. In this case, people can submit their photos, and TechTics directly pays contributors 25 cents per accepted image. Trove establishes a direct photo exchange for fair market value. To help amass those photos, Bos and team turned to Microsoft Trove, an app that connects AI developers with photo takers through a transparent data marketplace. TechTics must show the beach rover (and, specifically, the AI system) thousands of photos of cigarette butts, all lying about in various states, such as partially hidden, so it can recognize and remember them. They worked with students from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands to produce BeachBot, which relies on AI to do its job.īut teaching the bot how to find its prey requires a lot of people. To reach it, Bos and the TechTics team created the first AI-based detection algorithm that specifically sees cigarette butts. That goal is embraced by scores of locals. “A clean beach is very important to me.” BeachBot’s grippers prepare to collect this cigarette butt. “I want my kids to be able to sit barefoot in the sand without any glass or cigarette butts lying around,” says Oscar de Grave, a financial education instructor who lives near Scheveningen Beach. Many visitors to Scheveningen Beach are unfortunately familiar with an array of scattered junk along the shore – plastic caps, glass bottles, candy wrappers and all those cottony cigarette filters. Along coastlines, they slowly poison sea turtles, birds, fish, snails and other creatures. The fibrous fragments, which can take 14 years to disintegrate, have become “the most frequent form of personal item found on beaches,” according to a 2019 study by Brazilian scientists. Some of those chemicals also are linked to cancers, asthma, obesity, autism and lower IQ in humans.Įvery year, 4.5 trillion cigarette butts end up in the environment. How bad? When water touches discarded cigarette butts, the filters leach more than 30 chemicals that are “very toxic” to aquatic organisms and pose “a major … hazardous waste problem,” according to a February study by U.S.
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“The filters of cigarettes are full of microplastics,” he adds. “It really amazes me that all these things are just lying around. He enjoys strolling the less-crowded stretches on rainy, breezy days when it feels like he has the sand to himself. “It’s such a beautiful place,” says Bos, who lives near Scheveningen Beach. Edwin Bos (left) and Martijn Lukaart with BeachBot. Another demo is scheduled for this summer. BeachBot has completed one demo – at Scheveningen Beach during World Cleanup Day last September. Their prototype, called “BeachBot” (“BB” for short), uses artificial intelligence (AI) to learn how to better find the strewn filters, even if they’re partially buried in sand. Bos and Lukaart are the co-founders of TechTics, a consultancy based in The Hague that works to resolve social issues with technology. Two years later, Bos and fellow entrepreneur Martijn Lukaart have built a mobile, beach-cleaning machine that can spot cigarette butts, pluck them out and dispose of them in a safe bin. Second, he would find a way to help solve the problem. First, beach visitors needed to change their ways if they thought stuffing used filters in the sand meant the nasty scraps were now harmless. Turned out, cigarette butts littered the landscape. A dune along Scheveningen Beach just west of The Hague. In his fingers, he held a cigarette butt. It happened as his son, then 4, dug into the sand and raised his hand to show his father a fresh find. Popular with tourists and locals, the 4.5-kilometer stretch of Dutch coast is filled with aquatic wildlife and grassy dunes.īut for Bos, all that beauty quickly faded amid one tiny discovery. Edwin Bos savored the idyllic scene: blue sea, brilliant sun and his two small children frolicking on Scheveningen Beach.
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