I am using AI to drop hats outside my window onto New Yorkers

by jimhi • 2 years ago

1347 426 2 years ago

hammock• 2 years ago

This concept is great, it’s also a brilliant idea for a webcam on a Bourbon St balcony in New Orleans to throw beads at parties below. I am friends with a guy who owns a multistory bar in the middle of the strip and would be open to this, so if OP or someone else is interested in developing an AI/remote control bead thrower, drop some contact info and I’ll reach out

soulofmischief• 2 years ago

I live in Louisiana, have done object recognition projects before, feel free to reach out. Email in bio.

selimthegrim2• 2 years ago

I live in New Orleans. Happy to help as well. contact in bio.

edm0nd• 2 years ago

AI to recognize a pair of titties and then trigger the beads. Genius.

A4ET8a8uTh05• 2 years ago

I will be honest, while the project is actually neat, it showcases some of the issues with technological advancements as related to society ( and happens to also touch on one's exposure in a big city ). One could easily imagine a scenario ( or scenarios ), where this could be misused.

bogwog• 2 years ago

Right? I can already imagine the government doing this to drop nuclear bombs on dissidents.

A4ET8a8uTh05• 2 years ago

You seem to be making it unnecessarily dramatic for comedic effect and it does not have be government in attempt to dismiss genuine concern. The only reason I am not expanding on it is because I do not want to give people ideas.

bee_rider• 2 years ago

You don’t need to aim that well with a nuclear bomb.

This sort of tech could clearly be applied to the “last mile” problem in hand grenade deliveries as well, so close range jammer based solutions seem pretty hopeless (I think that’s been pretty obvious for a while, but this hobbyist project really emphasizes the fact, right?)

mensetmanusman2• 2 years ago

Like a gun?

prepend9• 2 years ago

Surely, if this got into the wrong hands evildoers could lower all sorts of things people order:

Toupees

Pianos

Air conditioners

Enriched yellow cake uranium

Specially trained mice with machine guns

Robert De Niro in Brazil

Etc etc

We must mobilize to stop this now before it’s too late. Hopefully this will be addressed during next week’s presidential election.

m3047• 2 years ago

I'm old enough to remember fishing poles hanging out of windows in Alphabet so you could buy drugs.

op00to10• 2 years ago

Yes, imagine if someone dropped a certain red cap with writing on it totally unbeknownst to you. People might form Opinions about you!

causal2• 2 years ago

I love this kind of project.

A lot of states are working on legislation that includes requirements for watermarking AI generated content. But it seldom defines AI with any rigor, making me wonder if soon everyone will need to label everything as made with AI to be on the safe side, kinda like prop 65 warnings.

tyingq• 2 years ago

I'm guessing we'll just end with every website has a button where you have to accept:

[ all cookies and ai stuff ]

omoikane• 2 years ago

This is not quite like the "AI" that's hyped in recent years, the key component is OpenCV and it has been around for decades. Few years ago, this might have been called Machine Learning (ML) instead of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

rzzzt3• 2 years ago

You have discovered a secret area of my personalized "pet peeves" level: just a few days ago I saw an article (maybe video) about how "AI" tracks you in a restaurant. Screenshot was from an OpenCV-based app with a bounding box around each person, it counted how many people are in the establishment, who is a waiter and who is a customer, and how long they have been there.

denton-scratch• 2 years ago

Thank you! I was wondering how they managed to wedge an AI model into a RasPi. And I couldn't figure out what the AI was needed for.

buffalobuffalo• 2 years ago

This has been going on for a while:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/ai-9

smus• 2 years ago

Looks like the key component is roboflow (a computer vision/ai platform) and the user trained and deployed a yolo deep-learning model.

causal2• 2 years ago

That's my point: legislation seldom defines AI rigorously enough to exclude work like OpenCV. I presume that leaves it to courts or prosecutorial discretion.

autoexec2• 2 years ago

So it doesn't actually drop hats onto heads and doesn't use what most people would consider AI... I think I could probably rig up something to gracelessly shove an item out of an open window too which is basically what we're left with. It'd take longer to create the app for booking appointments, and to set up everything for payment processing.

jampekka2• 2 years ago

Be it "AI" or not, these mostly fall under "AI" legistlation, at least in the new EU AI Act. Which is IMHO a better way to legislate than tying laws to specific algorithms d'jour.

prepend9• 2 years ago

It’s going to be like those “made in a facility that processes nuts” warnings that are on most foods these days

RheingoldRiver• 2 years ago

This comment is known to the State of California to contain text that may cause you to ignore warnings which may lead to cancer, reproductive defects, and some other shit that I can't remember because it's been almost a decade since I lived in California and weirdly I can't easily find the full text of one of these online through a quick search (emphasis: quick)

yellow_postit2• 2 years ago

I fear you’re right — cookie banners will soon also come with endless AI disclaimers that net net desensitize the end user to any consideration as they seek to skip poorly crafted regulation and get on with their lives.

jampekka2• 2 years ago

Poorly enforced regulation. Most of the cookie banners are illegal but businesses, especially large ones, have too much power to be effectively regulated.

The nags are kind of malicious semi-compliance, partly in effort to make the regulation look bad.

xnorswap• 2 years ago

If Big AI lobbyists get their way, this is exactly the kind of warnings we'll get.

Flood users with warnings on everything and it'll get ignored. Especially if there's no penalty for warning when there isn't a risk.

Big Tobacco must love Prop 65 warnings, because by making it look like everything causes cancer, smokers keep themselves blissfully ignorant at just how large the risk factor is for tobacco compared to most other things.

rahidz• 2 years ago

Ok folks, how does this impact our AGI (Aerial Gear Installation) timelines?

neontomo• 2 years ago

I think it has already propelled us ahead by 2 years.

dmvdoug4• 2 years ago

Propelled us a head, eh?

I see what you did there.

potatoman22• 2 years ago

This is beautiful. Have you ever dropped a hat on someone's head a a surprise?

parpfish• 2 years ago

will this create an organic HN meetup next under this dudes window?

tmountain• 2 years ago

Finally someone accomplishes something meaningful with AI! /s

saaaaaam• 2 years ago

This is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.

I can’t believe someone would spend the time and effort to do this.

I love it. You’re brilliant.

WanderPanda• 2 years ago

looks like AGI has been achieved externally

robofanatic• 2 years ago

Oh I could use this to deliver my home made lunch boxes to customers from my 15th floor apartment!

CyberDildonics4• 2 years ago

I'm no AI expert, but I think you could do that with some twine.

surfingdino3• 2 years ago

Twine would bias delivery to the right recipient whereas pure AI can send it anywhere with a high degree of inaccuracy.

adregan• 2 years ago

I feel like such a killjoy, but the first thing I thought of is the ongoing lice “epidemic” among people with school aged children in NYC.

I have never liked it when the ACs drip on me in midtown let alone a hat dropping on my head!

jimhi3• 2 years ago

My hats are completely new and unworn! Lice free since June 23

mensetmanusman2• 2 years ago

This is a consensual hat, not a villainous hat that attacks virgin tops.

prepend9• 2 years ago

Although I think the idea of nonconsensual hat drops is so fun and fantastic.

I wish I could register myself as being up for any sort of serendipity like this. While I like the idea of a hat randomly dropping onto my head, some people may not.

cchance• 2 years ago

you have to request the hat lol, you dont just walk buy and get shit dropped on you, you book a drop

ddubski• 2 years ago

As a counter point, the hat is a great way to protect against AC water drips.

My biggest fear about walking around any city (but NYC in particular) is an actual AC machine dropping onto my head. Maybe you could offer the choice to drop down a hard hat on streets with high AC unit density (and then pick it up when I leave the area).

blorenz2• 2 years ago

Love this! I play recreational ice hockey in an Adult league and for the past many years I've desired to use AI/Object recognition to recognize who was out on the ice during what times during the game to attribute who impacted goals and which players were taking longer than usual shifts ( every team has those one or two players!).

This may be achievable for me with the current state of AI and GPT to help fill the gaps that my knowledge is lacking in. Thanks for showing what you made and how you did it. It's encouragement to me.

GiorgioG• 2 years ago

If only LiveBarn feeds weren’t such a pile of crap I’d have some hope.

jimhi3• 2 years ago

This would be interesting, feel free to email me if you get stuck. If you had a camera at eye level, you could try to train it on recognizing the player jersey numbers.

MOARDONGZPLZ• 2 years ago

Facial recognition would be better. Don’t forget that canonically in Mighty Ducks D2 Goldberg and Russ switched jerseys so that Russ could get his infamous “Knuckle Puck” shot off undisputed because everyone thought the puck was passed to Goldberg until the mask came off. So the ML training on jerseys would have missed this critical moment and potentially assigned the score to Goldberg, when really it was Russ (wearing Goldberg’s jersey) who should have gotten the credit.

One might argue that this sort of thing rarely happens so it’s not worth doing more complex facial recognition vis a vis Jersey numbering. But I say that while it may be rare, when it does happen it’s a major event, so no complexity should be spared to ensure we capture it accurately.

blorenz2• 2 years ago

I would have multiple camera footage. One gopro would be just be a wide-angle of the bench behind the players, another would be on the game clock, and additional ones would be on-ice footage. Typically my gopro set-up has been behind the goalie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCavsdzc-OY) and the rinks have Livebarn feeds (here's one on my YT from 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WEE9y4cAHg) but there are challenges in quality abound.

mynameisvlad• 2 years ago

Iirc, LiveBarn offers this as a service if your local rink has it set up. Annoyingly, my local rink uses 30 minute video slots so it only ever captures half a game.

pants2• 2 years ago

I play in a rec soccer league and had a similar idea, except to also have everyone on the team wear a smartwatch that could intelligently buzz at you to sub out based on your heartrate and how long you've been in.

prattatx• 2 years ago

should give this to the coach too - Texas players get heat exhaustion

Trace and hudl use shirt number and person tracking. I bet they could add skin color and gait analysis to do this as well.

lesuorac• 2 years ago

The NHL just sticks an airtag equivalent into the jerseys.

Sometimes you can notice a little nob on the back/shoulder of a player.

https://www.google.com/search?q=nhl+player+tracking+jersey

https://old.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/u5707w/wha...

seoulmetro5• 2 years ago

This has already been possible for a decade.

jimhi3• 2 years ago

I am seeking neighboring stores! Sometimes I crave gum on the street, Gum drop anyone?

To summarize, I used:

1. Low weight but very cool product (like Propeller Hats)

2. Raspberry Pi for controlling everything

3. Adafruit stepper motor for the dropping mechanism

4. Yarn for holding the hat

5. Roboflow for the AI

rocauc• 2 years ago

i work on roboflow. seeing all the creative ways people use computer vision is motivating for us. let me know (email in bio) if there's things you'd like to be better.

seanhunter2• 2 years ago

This is legitimately awesome. Nice job sir.

Uehreka• 2 years ago

Sometimes I crave gum on the street

My immediate response to this was “ew, there’s already so much gum on the street”. Then I realized you meant you want to chew gum while walking down the street and I became enlightened.

wkat4242• 2 years ago

What do you think happens after they have enough of the gum? :)

yreg• 2 years ago

There is always this option: https://youtu.be/vYrXLaU8guU

prepend9• 2 years ago

I dream of a world where I merely open my mouth and wish it and the gum just flies down into it, already unwrapped.

You’re working toward this world and I commend you.

thfuran2• 2 years ago

I'll hold out for the teleportation-based version so I don't have to go through the effort of opening my mouth.

tamimio6• 2 years ago

At the speed of gravitational fall, it might choke you!

moralestapia2• 2 years ago

Pre-chewed, perhaps.

mapcars3• 2 years ago

People still use gum in 2024? I thought it's a wide knowledge that it's bad for you in every single way

anewhnaccount2• 2 years ago

Then a seagull flies overhead ;)

cpill• 2 years ago

the biggest thing he's overcoming is the rent?! how's he doing that while goofing off with projects like this?

parthianshotgun• 2 years ago

Can you explain the intention behind your post?

tamimio6• 2 years ago

Slightly unrelated: Did the building owner/landlord complain about that? Is it legal?

I know a friend of mine whom the building asked to remove a camera they had. It was a camera used only to record the hill view in front of the building, so it isn't violating any privacy, and it was attached with magnets, so no damage whatsoever.

ChainOfFools3• 2 years ago

I was also curious about this. a bunch of BASE jumping hats dropping off a building is exactly the sort of project I would momentarily think about doing and never seriously entertain due to being certain that sooner or later someone, somewhere is going to sue me for some marginally harm-like side effect.

radicality• 2 years ago

Also curious if they had any grounds for that. I was under the impression that if you have a camera within your apartment (looking through window), nobody should be able to tell you no.

Unless perhaps the camera was attached outside their window (no longer their apartment), in a way that could be deemed unsafe and fall off and hurt someone, whereupon the building owner could be held liable? In that case I would find it reasonable to tell them to remove it.

op00to10• 2 years ago

There’s plenty of gum already on the street. Simply scrape it up and you can have all the gum you desire.

reportgunner• 2 years ago

What if we had like a fridge with glass window and drinks or snacks organized in rows with identifiers for each. You could enter the identifier and make your payment to the fridge and it would drop the corresponding drink/snack to a slot on the bottom of the fridge.

dkga• 2 years ago

Really, really liked it! Also, would be glad to hear where you got that helicopter heads. I've been looking for one for some time but my head is large sized so I can't find one that fits here where I live.

amarcheschi• 2 years ago

Can you go a bit more in depth for the part regarding training the Ai to recognize the heads? Like what software(s) did you use ecc... I'm an undergrad who's seeking to do similar computer vision internships for his thesis and I find this kinda fascinating

lobsterthief• 2 years ago

That would most likely be the OpenCV bit

topherclay2• 2 years ago

No the opencv was just to capture video frames and they were iediately passed to the roboflow model through the ssh client.

seltzered_• 2 years ago

Which is what many would also call 'Image Processing'

epiccoleman• 2 years ago

Fantastic, I love this kind of silly stuff. The clear next iteration is a 4-prop hat, which can be guided to the target head.

Of course, that starts to verge on what's spooky about the idea, but either way, this is really fun and cool.

tcsenpai2• 2 years ago

This is one of the most beautiful things made with AI

hermannj3142• 2 years ago

Typical mid-western humor, spends almost as much time describing how to open a window as how to build an AI agent. Very fun project.

rand1239• 2 years ago

All experiences are equal. They all come and go. Its the ego which gives higher importance to building an AI agent over opening a window.

hermannj3142• 2 years ago

Well now I feel bad for laughing and having a good time.

voisin2• 2 years ago

Typical mid-western Buddhist humor.

aantix• 2 years ago

From a fellow midwesterner - was this great? “You betcha!”

Finally some window shopping that interests me.

xg15• 2 years ago

That's a great idea! Did I tell you about my cousin and his flower pot/anvil/piano business idea btw?

rendall• 2 years ago

I'm confused. The article describes a really cool project as if it were already implemented, but there is no video of it actually working? Am I missing something?

hotpockets• 2 years ago

it's a conceptual art project / hoax.

butterfi• 2 years ago

I can’t wrap my head around how that hat drops in a straight line. Between the propeller and any wind, how is that hat not all over the place?

riwsky2• 2 years ago

That’s because you aren’t supposed to wrap your head around a hat, you’re supposed to wrap the hat around your head.

OkGoDoIt• 2 years ago

If you watch the video, it actually falls several sidewalk tiles away and he has to go pick it up. From the text of the blog, I had assumed he was using AI to actually land it directly on a person’s head, which would’ve been crazy impressive.

civilized• 2 years ago

Not your mistake, he does his best to imply that the hats are dropping on heads.

He's got a future in marketing.

biftek• 2 years ago

The government would probably be knocking on his door if he developed a guided hat dropping system

Animats• 2 years ago

I was disappointed by that, too.

Now if you had terminal guidance... Put flaps on the hat, and use shape-memory alloy wire and a coin cell to actuate them. The hats follow a laser beam projected by the drop unit. Minimal electronics required in the hat. This is how some "smart bombs" work.

richardw• 2 years ago

Or using the propeller to chase you until it is satisfied that it’s on your head.

flir• 2 years ago

He needs to put the AI in the hat. Hat-drones.

Once he's done that, the military sector beckons.

dheera2• 2 years ago

It looks like it has more to do with the aerodynamics of the hat than the wind. It also hits a ledge on its way down in the video.

It seems like both of these are tractable issues.

A round hat that is spun with a significant initial angular momentum would probably fair better in landing more predictably.

EGreg2• 2 years ago

I know AI can do a lot but predict wind patterns? LOL

Imagine using AI to drop an object and it falls perfectly where you want it.

skhr06802• 2 years ago

Lunar Lander 2024

xnx• 2 years ago

he was using AI to actually land it directly on a person’s head

DARPA would definitely come knocking

s0rce• 2 years ago

This is exactly what I was expecting and I Was disappointed. Still mildly interesting but I don't really get it.

itskarad• 2 years ago

that's what I thought. What if there's a gust of wind?

mvandermeulen• 2 years ago

Just use a weight on the string with a configured go fast length and go slow length for your motor to observe

dheera2• 2 years ago

Do it in a more dense city like Manila (4-6X NYC's density) and you're guaranteed to land the hat on someone.

qustrolabe• 2 years ago

Is there video of any successful drops?

gcheong• 2 years ago

I was hoping to get in on the ground floor of this investment opportunity but it looks like I'm too late.

gsuuon• 2 years ago

Your check height may just be too low?

IAmGraydon• 2 years ago

Throwing your money into a fire pit would be equally as effective.

seanhunter2• 2 years ago

I have a few qualms with this AI-assisted hat delivery service[1]:

1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting a kaggle account, learning by doing computer vision projects, and then using opencv to build the vision parts of the system. From Windows or Mac, you could build using a cloud system such as Amazon Bedrock.

2. It doesn't actually replace having a hat for the period from your own front door to OP's apartment. Most people I know own hats themselves or borrow from friends to be able to attend specific events, but they still carry a hat in case there are weather problems. This does not solve the availability issue.

3. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?

[1] Actually I don't. It's really awesome.

lolinder2• 2 years ago

For any of today's lucky 10k:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

jf• 2 years ago

Thanks! I was one of the 10k and I’ve been a daily HN user for a long time!

Simon_O_Rourke• 2 years ago

Just wait until some bozo walking down the street starts litigation about harassment and spinal injury.

truetraveller2• 2 years ago

Is this legal? Imagine everyone doing this.

prepend9• 2 years ago

Why would this be illegal?

Like there would be a law against lowering hats on a string? I think it may be more funny to have a government create such a law.

Everyone doing this seems wonderful.

cantSpellSober2• 2 years ago

You're asking why dropping things out of a window in midtown Manhattan might be illegal?

It's a boring question anyway; this is HN.

mdorazio• 2 years ago

This is almost certainly illegal. If the hats actually hit anyone, it's possible to be sued for reckless endangerment and/or assault. If they don't, it's littering.

If you're asking dumb things like "how could a propeller hat dropped 50+ feet hurt someone?" then I encourage you to imagine getting hit in the eye by the spinning propeller if you happen to look up.

truetraveller2• 2 years ago

Is this legal?!

consumer451• 2 years ago

"Regulatory Entrepreneurship"

https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?articl...

voisin2• 2 years ago

Amazing. Hats on to you!

prepend9• 2 years ago

This seems wonderful. I’m in New York next weekend and wanted to buy a hat, but sadly you’re all booked up. Too bad.

Although since it only takes a few seconds, I’d expect you to be able to sell thousands of these a day. If you don’t mind me asking, how many slots do you release each day?

bazil376• 2 years ago

Mad hatter

29athrowaway• 2 years ago

Next step: add EEG electrodes

michael_michael• 2 years ago

Our team already uses cap.ly. How does this compare to that, or, say haberdash.er? Congrats on the launch.

worldmerge• 2 years ago

This is so cool and just brings me a lot of joy :)

Also, I've been working on a project (non-commercial) that looks down on people and have found existing models don't work super well from that angle so thank you for publishing your work on Roboflow.

paulcole• 2 years ago

I've been working on a project (non-commercial) that looks down on people

TIL my dad’s entire life has been a non-commercial project

buggeryorkshire• 2 years ago

Amazing. Any chance of Top Hats as a premium upgrade?

btown• 2 years ago

Picture a world where you can walk around New York City and everything you need is falling out of windows onto you. At a moments notice, at the drop of a hat. That's a world I want to live in. That's why I'm teaching you how to do yourself. Remember this as the first place you heard of "Window Shopping."

I truly love the concept of pun-driven development (PDD). As a motivating economic principle, a world where every human being has the resources, time, and personal safety to dedicate absurd amounts of their time to inane levels of pun-driven development is perhaps my favorite definition of utopia.

jimnotgym• 2 years ago

That's the best justification of Universal Income I have seen so far

DEADMINCE• 2 years ago

It can't be the best. It's only one of many positive consequences. Not even a main justification, but only a point of defense for those so irrationally against the concept.

skrebbel• 2 years ago

Pyramid Scheme comes to mind. It’s a scheme (as in, a lisp for purists) which compiles to Solidity, the language backing Ethereum.

http://www.michaelburge.us/2017/11/28/write-your-next-ethere...

joeyrideout• 2 years ago

"I Taught My Shrimp to Fry Rice" also comes to mind:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/upgdrBO02Gs

duxup• 2 years ago

“Hot today, I could go for a cold drink. OH NO!”

cscurmudgeon• 2 years ago

Sometimes I feel we live in a simulation in a real world a few levels down with universal income or something like that. They got bored so had to forget their existence by creating a simulation (or nested simulations).

seoulmetro5• 2 years ago

This is probably a bottom of the barrel idea if you took it in that world where everyone can experiment and execute their ideas. Like, this would probably get you put in jail in that world, it's that lame.

metadat2• 2 years ago

What an unexpectedly cool post, I clicked the link thinking it would be "typical dumb", but it ended up being atypically dumb in the greatest way! Fascinating. The author overcame many challenges and wrote about them in a style as if he solved the hardest parts with only a little fiddling. Maybe he's already seasoned in the ML and robotics domains? So much fun to read.

Regarding the Video Object Detection:

Why does inference need to be done via Roboflow SaaS?

    ...(api_url="https://detect.roboflow.com", api_key="API_KEY")

Is it because the Pi is too underpowered to run a fully on-device solution such as Frigate [0] or DOODS [1]? And presumably a Coral TPU wasn't considered because the author mostly used stuff he happened to have laying around.

Can anyone comment contrasting experience with Roboflow? Does it perform better than Frigate and DOODS?

Asking for a friend. I totally don't have announcement speakers throughout my house that I want to say "Mom approaching the property", "Package delivered", "Dog spotted on a walk", "Dog owner spotted not picking up after their beast", and so on. That last one will be tricky to pull off. Ah well :)

[0] https://github.com/blakeblackshear/frigate/pkgs/container/fr...

[1] https://github.com/snowzach/doods2

yeldarb• 2 years ago

FWIW you can use roboflow models on-device as well. detect.roboflow.com is just a hosted version of our inference server (if you run the docker somewhere you can swap out that URL for localhost or wherever your self-hosted one is running). Behind the scenes it’s an http interface for our inference[1] Python package which you can run natively if your app is in Python as well.

Pi inference is pretty slow (probably ~1 fps without an accelerator). Usually folks are using CUDA acceleration with a Jetson for these types of projects if they want to run faster locally.

Some benefits are that there are over 100k pre-trained models others have already published to Roboflow Universe[2] you can start from, supports many of the latest SOTA models (with an extensive library[3] of custom training notebooks), tight integration with the dataset/annotation tools that are at the core of Roboflow for creating custom models, and good support for common downstream tasks via supervision[4].

[1] https://github.com/roboflow/inference

[2] https://universe.roboflow.com

[3] https://github.com/roboflow/notebooks

[4] https://github.com/roboflow/supervision

dmvdoug4• 2 years ago

You are hereby put on notice that the undersigned intends to and henceforth will appropriate for his own further use without attribution to you the phrase “atypically dumb in the greatest way,” and furthermore that the undersigned may modify said phrase by replacing “greatest” with “best.” Any objection by you to said appropriation and/or modification by said undersigned will be and thereby is deemed waived by you, provided you do not respond to this notice within 48 hours. Please redirect your reply, if any, to /dev/null. Thank you.

metadat2• 2 years ago

Hilarious, your terms are acceptable. I'd actually edited "best" to "greatest", it was a tough call. Glad I could brighten your day, haha.

surfingdino3• 2 years ago

... "Dog spotted on a walk", "Dog owner spotted not picking up after their beast", and so on.

How about hanging a London Tube-style yellow dot-matrix display showing estimated times of neighbours walking past your home? Something like:

"1. Mrs Green towards Post Office 5min"

"2. Mr Smith towards Bus Stop 7min"

"3. Mr Snow towards Mrs Smith 9min"

BaculumMeumEst• 2 years ago

I really want to use llama3 8B Q4_0 llama.cpp for some fun automation tasks so I tried following this guide: https://voorloopnul.com/blog/quantize-and-run-the-original-l... but all I get out of it is rambling nonsense. Glad ollama exists I guess, running that works fine for me.

tamimio6• 2 years ago

Pretty cool! Any info about the maximum height of AI head detections?

stikit• 2 years ago

Love the creativity and humor which is often the spark for true innovation.This guy is a real life Kramer from Seinfeld. Reminds me of the episode where Kramer drops a ball of oil from his nyc apartment while testing a business idea.

karaterobot• 2 years ago

This is visionary.

atemerev• 2 years ago

Cool. Now replace hats with explosives and sell it to the military.

lxgr• 2 years ago

This is so much nicer than the typical type of things that might fall onto your head in Midtown. Love it!

deadbabe• 2 years ago

Maybe I’ll try this

metaph6• 2 years ago

what a lots of free time to spare, creatw and joy...

jaredhansen• 2 years ago

This is the best thing I've seen on HN or indeed on the internet in general for quite a long time. Excellent work and thank you for brightening my day.

kulesh• 2 years ago

Go roboflow!

Frieren• 2 years ago

Picture a world where you can walk around New York City and everything you need is falling out of windows onto you.

A funny way of criticizing something. Great commentary.

Uptrenda• 2 years ago

I don't know what is more impressive: that someone thought of such a whacky idea or that they actually implemented it. It's very creative and I can see someone who thinks like this seeing opportunities others wouldn't.

o999• 2 years ago

That's nice, except it is very likely illegal

timnetworks• 2 years ago

As another inhabitant of the same x,y plot -- please don't pivot to pianos.

petermcneeley• 2 years ago

That hat seems familiar.

IIAOPSW• 2 years ago

WHAT CORNER IS THIS ON I WILL GO THERE RIGHT NOW AND WAIT TO BE HATTED BY AN AI

AustinDizzy• 2 years ago

Judging by the first picture in the article, it appears to be at Park Ave & E 33rd St.

betaporter• 2 years ago

Tried to buy a hat and this person is... sold out. For a while!

vedmed• 2 years ago

Now take this code and replace hats with bombs.

tcsenpai2• 2 years ago

Thanks, I am happy to notify you that I archived your post in my hall of fame (and in the internet archive). Kudos! https://archive.tunnelsenpai.win/archive/1719179282.959772/i...

ajwin• 2 years ago

I wonder if anvils will be the breakout product for this technology. It seems like it should be.

talldayo• 2 years ago

I know a guy at Acme Corp. who would pay top dollar to get this tech out to his customers.

op00to10• 2 years ago

Grand pianos.

JFuzz• 2 years ago

“Fan” tastic

geerlingguy• 2 years ago

My dream is for all the city windows to be constantly dropping things on us all the time. You will need a Raspberry Pi...

A Raspberry Pi would hurt quite a bit, depending on the floor!

rashidae• 2 years ago

If this is used for the wrong reasons, so using something other than a hat… This could be lethal.

giantg2• 2 years ago

Won't be a problem if we scale up the mosquito zapping laser system...

op00to10• 2 years ago

What, like a toupee?

chris_wot2• 2 years ago

Only if the toupee created was from the head of another living person.

pthreads• 2 years ago

Most underrated comment!

Also, this would be contrary to GP's comment - it would be the right reason. Imagine if a bald person is walking by and a toupee happens to fall on their head and they can see themselves in a window reflection of a toupee shop that just so happens to be there.

Use some ML/AI to choose the right fit, style, hair color etc., the drop orientation, and angle. Throw in some ChatGTP integration to suggest using scalp glue. Combined with OP's marking skills they will be in business in no time!

seoulmetro5• 2 years ago

So could just dropping things out your window?

wat.

shultays• 2 years ago

Some powers are not to be trusted to AI

rvnx3• 2 years ago

Yes but here you have an unattended and scalable setup

ruined• 2 years ago

people are already doing that manually

Nimnimnim• 2 years ago

The vision of a world where you need a sandwich on your way to work and it just drops on your head is both hilarious and something I really need in my life.

op00to10• 2 years ago

I will pay $10 to have a hat drop on my head while standing in one spot for 3 seconds. Please contact me if you are interested in doing business.

hettygreen• 2 years ago

Fake.. only one video clip where the hat disappears when it falls and then reappears on the guys head just as he re-emerges from view.

jasongill• 2 years ago

He picks up the hat...

tears-in-rain• 2 years ago

well, lads, may i ask a favor? never try this on fpv drone with shell.

helsinki• 2 years ago

See you in August!

lupire4• 2 years ago

This is fake and an ad, right?

Why 800+ votes for a thing that obviously doesn't do what it claims to be doing, and shows pictures and videos of it not doing the thing?

fumeux_fume• 2 years ago

Because it’s so wAcKy? I don’t get it either.

avidphantasm• 2 years ago

Finally something useful from “AI.”

bonyt• 2 years ago

I was once on 25th street in Midtown, when I saw someone drop a tiny object with a little parachute from a window at least 8 or 9 stories up. Once it had finished slowly gliding down to the street, someone picked it up and used it to enter the building. It was the key - I guess the buzzer didn't work! It was a delightful sight.

selcuka• 2 years ago

It must have been dramatic, but from a practical point of view wrapping it inside a few layers of paper towel (so that it doesn't kill anyone) would be faster, and easier to target.

skhr06802• 2 years ago

Is it even possible for a a parachute-retarded key to directly hurt someone? I’d be more worried about it surprising someone driving a car or riding a bike and causing an accident

ajot• 2 years ago

A friend of mine used to throw us his keys inside a pack of socks

d--b• 2 years ago

I've seen people use an electric whisk to unreel a string to which the key was attached. Seems less risky than the parachute thing.

sandworm1012• 2 years ago

> when I saw someone drop a tiny object with a little parachute from a window at least 8 or 9 stories up.

I was 90% sure the next sentence was going to mention drugs.

LorenPechtel• 2 years ago

Chute to drop a key?? That's too much, something that light should be dropped by streamer. Less vulnerable to wind and more reliable.

Long, long ago I did model rocketry. Using too much chute was not a good thing because it could go so far off course. The high power rocket guys do it with two chutes--a drogue that deploys high and then the landing chute that deploys low. But that requires electronics and certifications and the like. In the lightweight stuff there's nothing fancy, just a delay built into the engine after which it burns through the top, momentarily exhausting into the interior.

wsdookadr• 2 years ago

Possibly the most important tech project of 2024.

riwsky2• 2 years ago

Hats off to you!

LikeBeans2• 2 years ago

It would be cool to make something similar for a pet feeder. Imagine having two cats (like we do). A skinny one and a fat one. AI would recognize them and dispense more food for the skinny one throughout the day. Hmm... :-)

c22• 2 years ago

I made my pet feeder do this! No ai necessary, though--they just stand on a scale to activate it.

LikeBeans2• 2 years ago

Clever!

matsemann• 2 years ago

Our bowls uses the chip to recognize the cats (and open only for the correct cat, so we can give each cat the correct amount of food, called SureFeed)

shiroiushi• 2 years ago

Have the cats figured out that the skinny one gets more food?

yaky• 2 years ago

Title is very misleading. I initially thought this is a high-tech prank.

TLDR: Not just any "New Yorkers", but specifically "customers who want to buy a propeller hat". And hats are dropped not "onto", but "somewhere on the sidewalk next to" these New Yorkers. And sure, this might be "using AI", but AI seems like an overkill to recognize that a person is standing longer than three seconds under the window.

So a guy sells hats by dropping them out of the window. Not sure why there are so many comments praising this. Is it because of the pun? Am I missing something?

yellow_postit2• 2 years ago

It’s a fun little project that’s well written prose. In some of the best hacker traditions it does almost nothing.

vijucat• 2 years ago

Once superintelligence takes over all jobs, as it is claimed will happen (, and there is an AIBI : AI Basic Income), I hope we are free to do more such projects :)

stevage• 2 years ago

Reminds me a bit of jafflechutes: http://jafflechutes.com/whatis.html

natch• 2 years ago

Is roboflow in the picture because the Pi doesn't have the power to do object recognition?

schneems2• 2 years ago

This is cool. It reminded me of a dream project in my backlog: I want to build a fan that tracks my head when I workout and always blows at my face.

Do y’all think a similar stack/setup (raspberry pi and python3 and this model thing he linked to) would be a good starting point? I prefer to use a more “algorithm” solution than a full blown model (I mean cameras have had face detection since what, the early 2000s?).

Anyway, curious to hear any suggestions.

memocopycat• 2 years ago

I have build something similar as an entry for the Hackaday prize in 2016:

https://hackaday.io/project/12384-autofan-automated-control-...

I used Viola-Jones for face detection on a Raspberry Pi 2 and built a fan with servo-actuated lamellae from plywood using my CNC-Router. It almost landed me a job at a local engineering company but chose to stay in academia back then. I still have the hardware somewhere in a drawer in my workshop. It definitely was a fun project.

schneems2• 2 years ago

This is great thanks!

ivanb• 2 years ago

If the goal is to make a window-based store, then why do you need AI at all? Just release the hat once payment goes through.

This reminds me of thousands of blockchain projects that used the technology to flip on light switch.

foo42• 2 years ago

I believe the whole project, and the talk of stores in particular, is humour. At least that's how I read it. I appreciate not everyone has the same sense of humour so that may have passed you by.

beacon294• 2 years ago

This is a clever use of AI marketing. I'd still be interested in "I'm using computers to drop hats outside my window onto New Yorkers."

sim7c002• 2 years ago

This seems to only support windows :(

mojo74• 2 years ago

I can't believe this comment didn't get the attention it deserves.

simianparrot5• 2 years ago

This isn't reddit and it's generally frowned upon to quip or make puns without any additional substance.

Y-bar• 2 years ago

That's just for emulation, dropping hats using ARM and RI (regular intelligence) should be natively supported on your wetware.

rexreed• 2 years ago

Looks like Red hat might be soon coming.

scottmcdot• 2 years ago

The next drop shipping?

mnw21cam• 2 years ago

And there I was, hoping for a Flanders and Swann reference.

defrost• 2 years ago

Like The Gnu Song from At the Drop of a Hat?

Pretty much writes itself really.

meigwilym• 2 years ago

Thanks OP, a great intro to drop shipping.

zxcvbnm• 2 years ago

It seems I'm in a minority thinking this is not that great... wind can blow the hat (or the thing from the generalized idea) into traffic, or onto a baby, or any other place to upset people. Also, if the recipient can't/doesn't pick the thing up, then it's littering. From the technical perspective finding heads in a video is not that impressive nowadays... So, I don't get all the excitement...

askl• 2 years ago

[flagged]

simianparrot5• 2 years ago

And yet again it’s an existing technology (image recognition) with a lick of AI paint

rrgok• 2 years ago

He should've have said "Blazingly fast AI hat dropper, in Rust"

octocop• 2 years ago

you must be great at parties

armada6512• 2 years ago

Sometimes someone has to tell the party when they've come up with a potentially deadly idea no matter how much of a killjoy that may be.

dang• 2 years ago

Please don't cross into personal attack and please don't do drive-by internet tropes.

This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

ertgbnm• 2 years ago

Eh, it's cute and I seriously doubt he is using this when not at home since it is a single use device.

But also I am shocked that there is a New Yorker that would pick up a hat from the street and put it on their head. My first thought would be, "how much lice is in this thing?"

sandworm1012• 2 years ago

As opposed to the hat in the store that has been tried on by a dozen tourists?

stronglikedan• 2 years ago

Babies with hats?! Won't somebody think of the children!

iamleppert• 2 years ago

Also no permitting, especially in NYC! Eeek!

karolist2• 2 years ago

This perspective is being on the right side in the bell curve meme graph. Also why did they copy Noogler hat design?

fcarraldo• 2 years ago

Google didn't invent the propeller hat.

dleslie• 2 years ago

I'm thinking it's assault.

Imagine being on the sidewalk and someone just hucks a hat at your head, how would that feel? More than a little alarming for many, I should think.

How is it not clear that it's inappropriate to be violating others' personal space without their consent and without warning, to force clothing upon them no less?

s3p• 2 years ago

If a hat falls on me when I'm outside I promise you my first thought will not be about how the wind assaulted me without consent...

julesallen2• 2 years ago

If you actually read the article all will be much clearer.

borski2• 2 years ago

Read the article. It is opt-in.

julesallen2• 2 years ago

"Here a busy New Yorker *can book a 5 minute time slot*, pay for a hat, stand in a spot under my window for 3 seconds, have a hat put on their head, and get on with their extremely important, extemely busy day all within a single New York minute."

aiauthoritydev• 2 years ago

Exactly my thoughts. I dont want anything being dropped on me when I am riding my bike or walking with an infant in a stroller. But I am hoping the guy did this just to solve problems and not actually dropping hats on others.

cynicalsecurity• 2 years ago

That project could become a really nice military startup. You could use it in order to drop bombs on the heads of Russian fascist soldiers in Ukraine.

classified• 2 years ago

If this isn't domestic terrorism, I don't know what is.

mdrzn• 2 years ago

Very cool idea and project :)

Sardtok• 2 years ago

I'm looking into starting a piano or anvil store. This is just the thing I need to make my dream come true.

boffinAudio• 2 years ago

Hats or Bombs? You decide. The AI doesn't have the ability to do so.

kozak• 2 years ago

This tech will definitely find some good use here in Ukraine.

codesnik• 2 years ago

damn, I really hoped it'd autorotate.

oblio• 2 years ago

AI is the new random()

snaeker583• 2 years ago

I can’t believe I watched a story of using AI to drop hats on people and calling it drop shipping turn into a debate about parties, buzzkills and the risk of addictive substances vs “annoying” people against hat drop shipping and similar ideas, a discussion on the legal bounds of unwanted hat drop shipping, the effect of stray hats on babies and a quantitative analysis on the environmental impact of objects dropped from apartment windows in NYC. Followed by another debate on the mental effect of objects dropping from apartments in cities with skyscrapers. This is amazing.

chrisfosterelli• 2 years ago

Hacker news was traditionally an audience that's very hacker orientated. Over the years it's gained a significant portion of audience that are just 'in tech'. Some threads really show the clash between the two IMO.

Sohcahtoa82• 2 years ago

I feel like we've entered a new era of HN.

First there was the excessively dismissive era that spawned the infamous Dropbox comment (Which was widely misunderstood).

Then came the functional programming era, where people worshipped Haskell and frequently got posted to /r/ProgrammingCirclejerk. Eventually we got past that one as people discovered that Haskell isn't really useful for anything besides showing off how you can implement Quicksort in a single line or starting arguments over what the hell a Monad is.

Then there was the needlessly pedantic era, which basically spawned the "ACKCHYUALLY" meme. The pedantry was often a huge distraction, never added anything to the conversation, and often was actually incorrect. If you've ever said "Actually, that's not ray tracing, that's ray casting!", then congrats, you're part of this era.

We're now in the era of being dismissive, not for technical merits like the previous dismissive era, but for being unproductive. Any time a project is done purely for fun or personal reasons (ie, nostalgia), there's someone in the comments talking about how useless it is, and that the time could be better spent Making The World A Better Place(tm)[0].

[0] https://youtu.be/B8C5sjjhsso

snaeker583• 2 years ago

I agree (though I don’t know if you agree with me)!

I think this post captures what I’d expect from hacker news quite well. A cool single person project messing around, creating something a community can enjoy.

What I don’t like are these weird doom mentality discussions over AGI (as an example), they just make me cringe really badly.

Then again I really can’t complain, all in all I love Hacker News, great topics, great comments!

zmgsabst• 2 years ago

There’s always been a sharp divide in ethos when it comes to involving others without their express consent and when you leave remnants behind.

snaeker583• 2 years ago

But we don’t know that and call me naive, but I see this as something that is done on a very small scale, by people who booked a “dropship” on his website. I don’t think you’ll find even a single of those hats in streets around his apartment. The humor is my flavor, and most of the imagine this as a viable product I take as such humor.

MisterTea• 2 years ago

This is amazing.

Just another day on your average know it all message board.

rtaylorgarlock• 2 years ago

I wonder if there's a way to get data on this, even if it's only 'sentiment.' A bit hard to validate actual experience on what's effectively anonymous without intentional disclosure or a whole lot of rep. I've been told repeatedly about the caustic nature of the HN crew, and it makes me wonder what steps could be taken to shift the culture in a healthier direction while not losing... well, HN haha.

throwaway2902• 2 years ago

That's what a message board does, you post a thing and people say things about it. Not necessarily nice things, if only nice things were said that would be kind of pointless.

micromacrofoot• 2 years ago

The opportunity for vertical integration here is incredible.

carabiner• 2 years ago

Site is down. What did it show?

kelnos• 2 years ago

Fun demo, but it would work just as well for the customer to tap something on their phone (or even send/reply to an SMS) to trigger the hat-drop, and be much, much simpler, and likely more reliable. It looks like it isn't capable of actually placing the hat on the customer's head (it lands on the ground nearby), so the camera and AI stuff is only acting as a trigger, not a guide.

And presumably if another random person happens to stop inside the right sidewalk tile for at least 3 seconds during the 5-minute window, before the actual customer gets there, they'll get the hat instead!

coderustle• 2 years ago

anyone know the cross streets?

4oo4• 2 years ago

This makes me really miss the Stupid Shit hackathon, this seems like a perfect project for it.

https://stupidhackathon.com/

emsign2• 2 years ago

A coin on a string would be funnier. Just when someone wants to yoink it, up up up it flies.

emsign2• 2 years ago

Oh, I just realized that will never work. Nobody pays in cash anymore.

I am using AI to drop hats outside my window onto New Yorkers

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