AT LAST, A SMART TABLECLOTH

A team at Dartmouth College have created a smart fabric capable of figuring out what you’re putting on it. The so-called “smart tablecloth” uses subtle shifts in electrical charges to identify objects of various shapes and sizes. This includes non-metallic objects like fruits and credit cards. Electrical charge information is recorded by the tablecloth’s electrodes and then compared to pre-loaded data within the system via machine learning. The researchers performed tests on 20 different items, with the smart tablecloth recording a 94.5 percent accuracy level. It was found to be quite adept at identifying different types of fruit, as well as the fullness of liquid containers. It can also differentiate between different beverages like water and soda. Says senior study researcher Xing-Dong Yang, an assistant professor of computer science: “This research has the potential to change the way people interact with computing through everyday soft objects made of fabrics.”
* Nope. I don’t need to play “Are You Smarter Than A Tablecloth.”
* If I use one at Thanksgiving, will I be able to tell which of my stupid relatives spilled gravy on the table?
* If you sit down with a big ol’ bowl of ice cream, the tablecloth yells “Chow down, fatty! Oink-oink!”
* Credit cards mixing with electrical charges. What could go wrong?
* I can see this being used in a Mission: Impossible or a James Bond movie, and that’s about it.