How Do Computers Actually See?

Computers use pictures like clues to figure out what they're seeing. Imagine you have a picture of your friend, and you try to recognize them by their shape, eyes, or clothes. A computer does something similar, it uses numbers and patterns from the image to guess what's in front of it. It might even learn over time if you show it more pictures.

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Examples

  1. A computer might recognize your mom from a picture if it’s learned what she looks like before.
  2. The camera on your phone can tell if you're smiling in a photo by looking at the shape of your mouth and eyes.
  3. If a robot sees an apple, it knows to pick it up because it has seen other apples before.

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