32 FEBRUARY 2025 WorldWide Drilling Resource® It Doesn’t Know by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC The other day, I was moving some items through the self-checkout at the local grocery store when I noticed something. The self-checkout machine computer-generated voice asked me if I had placed a bag in the platform where all of the scanned items are supposed to go. It didn’t know whether or not I had put a bag there. Amazing. Like the saying goes, “We can put a man on the moon, but we can’t make a machine that can determine if a paper bag is or is not in a certain area.” Of course I’m being facetious, but this incident underscores just how inadequate computer-controlled anything can be. Computers are great and, when properly applied and tested, can eliminate or simplify a lot of tasks normally done by humans. But even the most incredible computer system has limitations which must be respected. Consider this Epoch Times article reporting on the Tesla autopilot system: https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/teslasautopilot-results-in-hundreds-of-crashes-multiple-fatalities-federal-authorities-say5638560?src_src=Morningbrief&src_cmp=mb-2024-0429&est=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAcfcmZQAV2uHL5LIcqmBLRbp%2F353XqjJJ3WAXvbt%2FLjRLvMA%3D Often in the “real world” there are variables that no computer can deal with. One example: The supermarket scanner works by sensing the weight of whatever is placed on it. Sensors called “strain gauges” are mounted underneath the table which deflect (bend slightly) when weight is placed upon them. This deflection of the strain gauges is output as a voltage which the computer uses to determine the weight of the item(s) placed upon it. If the computer scans, say, a loaf of bread and has been programmed to know this loaf of bread weighs about a pound and confirms the weight as reported by the strain gauges mounted under the platform, then it assumes the proper item is being charged. Often when I place a paper bag on this platform, the computer asks me: Did you place a bag on the platform? It asks this because it really doesn’t know what was placed on the platform because it wasn’t accompanied by a scan to tell it what was going to be on the platform. Since a paper bag doesn’t weigh much, it’s at the lower “edge” of the strain gauge sensing capability limits which, for a table weighing groceries, would be about 50 pounds. This is called the “full-scale” rating of the strain gauge. How “fine” the measurement capability is . . . perhaps one ounce relative to the 50-pound measurement full-scale capability of the platform is called resolution. According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word “resolution” means: The ability of a microscope, or a television or computer screen, to show things clearly and with a lot of detail. If one wants to be able to measure one ounce accurately, that’s fine . . . just buy a strain gauge with a smaller full-scale range to produce an acceptable resolution of, in this case, a few ounces. But the downside of this scenario is you lose the ability to measure the weight of anything greater than a few ounces. The only other alternative is to have some sort of sensor to detect the presence of a paper bag. To my knowledge, this kind of sensor hasn’t been developed yet. One could also attach an indicator like a RFID (radio frequency identification) tag on the bag, but it would greatly increase the cost of the bag and a system that needs to read the bag to determine if the bag is actually there. Like many computer systems, we must be content with partial success. This is not a life-or-death issue as nobody will get hurt if the bag is or isn’t there, but it also means we shouldn’t be using computers in life-or-death applications because they are simply not comprehensive enough to deal with every issue that comes along. Britt Britt Storkson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDk4Mzk=