I love projects like this because, while it doesn't necessarily have a direct application right away, it solves a piece of a problem that could go a long way to help something else. Reminds me of the skittles/M&M sorting machine that someone built a little while ago. As more projects like this develop, we're teaching computers more and more about visual recognition.
> while it doesn't necessarily have a direct application right away
This is one part I didn't fully understand. In the previous post jacquesm said that the sorted Lego sets are more expensive than the unsorted one (and a fake piece destroys the price). So:
* Is he planning to make a few additional buck buying unsorting sets and selling them after sorting?
* Does he have a huge collection and is bored to try to find the pieces?
Go re-read the first few paragraphs of the first post:
> After doing some minimal research I noticed that sets do roughly 40 euros / Kg and that bulk lego is about 10, rare parts and lego technic go for 100’s of euros per kg. So, there exists a cottage industry of people that buy lego in bulk, buy new sets and then part this all out or sort it (manually) into more desirable and thus more valuable groupings.
> I figured this would be a fun thing to get in on and to build an automated sorter.
He then impulsively bid on a ton of bulk lego on eBay and ended up with a garage completely full of the stuff.
Sounds like it started for fun, then spiraled out of control and is now a thing he would very much like to do to get all this lego the hell out of his life for at least enough of a profit to cover shipping it to and from his place, if not much more.
Can't wait for Skynet to go live! :-P