Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Crow trash collectors

Teach them how.
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I was thinking about the robot which picked up white litter (linked). It would have trouble moving over uneven and vegetated terrain. It would wind up getting hit by a car.

But the white sensor could still be used. I envision the robot as having a hopper. When something white was dropped in, the robot would sense it and dispense a tiny pellet of food.

A group of young grows would be taught how the machine works. They could find something white and drop it in, then receive food. When done, the robot could be parked in various area, and the crows would scour the surroundings to put trash into it.

I suspect that wild crows would pay attention and learn this way as well. Crows have culture. Ultimately, cities could be kept clean by their resident crows and a few robots full of kibble.

bungston, Aug 31 2007

Controversial Trash Man Controversial_20Trash_20Man
Trash collecting robot with whiteness detector. [bungston, Aug 31 2007]

Crow vending machine http://www.boingboi...08-crow-vendin.html
I am glad I could do my part here on the HB. [bungston, Feb 09 2009]

The girl who gets gifts from birds http://www.bbc.com/...6?fb_ref=HalfBakery
One girl's trash is another girl's treasure [swimswim, Feb 26 2015]

Startup Plans To Clean Up Cigarette Butts Using Crows https://news.slashd...e-butts-using-crows
[xaviergisz, Oct 15 2017]

[link]






       crows are cool... but pigeons! Fuck yeah.
daseva, Aug 31 2007
  

       HEY! That's my sandwich!   

       That would be hilarious, 21 quest. Even after the program were discontinued due to the disappearance of anything not bolted down, the army of crows would superstitiously keep trying to replicate their successes by placing random stuff in dumpsters, convertibles, old refrigerators. No object is safe!
GutPunchLullabies, Aug 31 2007
  

       But hilarious for me! I have an MP3 player I got on ebay for ten bucks!
GutPunchLullabies, Aug 31 2007
  

       Especially hilarious when I build a papier mache mockup of the robot, and suddenly have lots of iPods. Which cost me birdseed.
GutPunchLullabies, Aug 31 2007
  

       I like it. I like it a lot. We ought to do a lot more of this kind of thing--getting rabbits to cut and fertilize our lawns, getting pigeons to deliver the mail, and getting dogs to not crap on the carpet.   

       (I have low expectations for dogs, because I own a phenomenally stupid beagle. (Yeah, yeah, I know, all beagles are phenomenally stupid, but this one is stupid even by beagle standards. She's so stupid it borders on cute.))
colorclocks, Feb 11 2009
  

       There are really huge numbers of crows living in cities. I think this is a recent thing - occurring over the past few decades. Maybe it is a phenomenon similar to the colonization of Europe by rats in the early middle ages. In any case, it would be good to get some useful work out of crows and they are certainly capable of it.
bungston, Feb 11 2009
  

       Yes, over the last decade north county San Diego has come to be ruled by clouds of crows. Anything to use this resource would be good.
normzone, Feb 11 2009
  

       Thanks for that link, swimswim. That made my day.
bungston, Feb 26 2015
  

       I really like your idea (I like a lot of your ideas, Bungst) and after first reading it I went on to read a bunch about New Caledonian and other crows. It made me want to build a contraption to do something like the idea describes. There are certainly enough crows in my neighborhood to give it a try!
swimswim, Feb 28 2015
  

       I was pondering recently how this might be done. I think a nozzle pointing down with a color detector. Pointing down means the crows cannot clog the machine with random stuff. When the color detector detected white the vacuum would turn on briefly and suck the thing up. A piece of kibble would come down to the pecking bin at the same time.   

       I am not confident wild crows would ever figure that out.
bungston, Feb 28 2015
  

       Well, as they say, train the trainer. If you coached one and allowed him to show the others, they'd catch on.
normzone, Oct 18 2017
  
      
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