Colour and Shape: Using Computer Vision to Explore the Science Museum (2020)

Unique individual objects In addition to finding unique groups of objects, the map can also be used to identify individual objects that have a highly distinctive appearance. A selection of these objects are shown below. They were found by measuring the distance of each object to its five nearest neighbours. Some of the particularly unique-looking objects within the Science Museum’s collection. The collage includes several domestic appliances: a marmalade cutter, a heater designed to recycle waste hot air from a fireplace, and a rotary cheese grater. There are also two art deco objects: a photo frame and a loudspeaker. And there are two Kinora viewers, which are similar to ‘flip books’. The user looks through a viewer while turning a handle which causes the picture to flip over. Perhaps the two oddest objects are the sample of turf and what appears to be a blue rock. These two objects are connected because they both relate to recycling. The artificial turf is an example of a product ... Read full article.