TED talk: Joshua Klein's vending machine for crows
Joshua Klein's TED presentation about how he taught crows to drop coins into a peanut vending machine of his own design was my favorite talk at the conference.
Hacker and writer Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice the gleam of intelligence in their little black eyes?) After a long amateur study of corvid behavior, he's come up with an elegant machine that may form a new bond between animal and human.LinkJoshua Klein will hack anything that moves -- his list includes "social systems, computer networks, institutions, consumer hardware and animal behavior." His latest project, though charmingly low-tech, has amazing implications for the human-animal interface.
Right now, Klein is working at Frog Design as a Principle Technologist, while developing mobile/social applications, health care-related systems and other tools that improve people’s lives. He's the author of the novel Roo'd, which was the first modern book (after Tarzan) to be ported to the iPhone.
"Klein envisions a new symbiotic relationship between these intelligent birds and the humans that encroach on their habitat. ... Why not turn a longstanding rivalry between man and crow into something that profits both species?"
the latest
latest episodes
Over on Daily Coyote, there's a neat entry about how Charlie the coyote learned to turn on his owner's roomba so he could play with it.
If a coyote can figure out that, maybe we can build vending machines for that species that dispenses roadkill.
I loved hearing about this. There was a crow I was particular friends with when I was a little bit older than a toddler. His name was Bird. James Bird.
I post this in all crow-related threads: if you like them there birds and the folks that study them, pick up a copy of Bernd Heinrich's Ravens in Winter.
Going to check it out immediately, IWood.
I saw a documentary once where a crow had learned to drop nuts on a pedestrian crossing, let the traffic run over then to break them open, then walk out when the lights changed and eat safely. Seriously smart little suckers.
Oh, haha, I should have watched the video before I commented, because there it is. Good old David ;-)
I wonder if he's ever read any Casteneda...
I subscribe to the TEDTalks on Miro.
Very cool.
I think I'll teach my crows to steal other peoples coins, and put it in my ... Oh, hell. I'll never be rich.
"Principle technologist"? Interesting job title, that.
What's most fascinating is that he's also hacking human behavior, too. Sweet.
That 'longstanding rivalry' is not so accurate.
Corvids tell hunters where the game is - and they always have.
They know - but we forgot.
Hey, alisong76, you don't need a doc to see that. A co-worker of mine and I see crows doing this all the time in the alley behind our building.
The first time my co-worker (who'd seen it before) pointed it out to me, I thought this was part of an elaborate prank. You'll see the clever little buggers not just drop a nut (chestnuts, I think, they're all over the place here in vancouver) in the alley, but they'll stand next to the target nut, then look down the long, straight alley, looking at cars coming, and line up the nut so it'll get run over.
Car goes by, nut is cracked, happy crows.
BigPaul, although we have crows, we don't have all that many nut-bearing trees in this part of the world, so yes, I kinda do ;-)
This seems to me to be a great way to pick up cigarette buts. They are a terrible polluter and a pain in the ass to pick up. Crows cleaning up cigarette buts would be revolutionary.
Does video footage exist of the machine in use by crows?
@15 Stefan Gruber:
Yeah I second that. If this thing works so well then why not show it in action? I feel a little cheated.
@15,16: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iihdP3b6LXw
Very cool.
Dear Joshua,
I have an interesting story that you might find very fascinating. The most interesting part of the story is that I had a great friend by the name of SEEMOORE. Seemoore was a black crow that was a circus crow. He was sold to a rancher in a town that I grew up in when I was a little girl. I was in fourth grade and my parents had separated. My mother was very sick and very sad. My sister would come home from her friends speaking of this black crow that kids called Seemoore. I being an animal lover would be all ears wanting to hear anything other than old stories of how thing used to be. I couldn’t wait as a ten year old to see the black crow named Seemore. He would recognize people and had his favorites. Seemoore loved children because as a young bird he grew up in the circus and got to interact with children. He would ride around on the handle bars of our bicycles. He loved shinny object and would often take children’s shinny objects and put them on top of a telephone poll. If this happened you had better hoped you had been nice to Seemoore or you wouldn’t get your shinny object back.
The day had finally come, Seemoore was in my yard crowing very loudly. I ran outside as fast as I could! I wasn’t sure who scared who worse! Him hopping around or me running out to see him. He was a bit scary looking to me at first but became a friendly face for me to know in such a rough time in my life. He stared at me as much as I stared at him. It was if we both were making a mental picture of each other. He did know who I was from then on out. He had a way of finding me even at school. Seemoore had his favorites and would make his rounds to see his friends. One of his favorites was a boy by the name of David. You would see David on his bike with Seemoore riding on the handlebars as if he was flying and not having to do any work! How is that for adaptation! If Seemoore didn’t want you to go somewhere and you were at the age of driving that could be a bad thing. If he wasn’t done visiting with you and your shinny keys were laying around you had better grab them before Seemoore did! He could pick me out of a crowd of kids even before I said Seemoore in an excited voice. Kids would think I was crazy and the teacher would scream at him as if he had done something wrong. I have many more stories to tell about Seemoore the black crow. One day we were driving the car it was me my mother and a friend. Seemoore was following us and some boys were in the street with a gun my mother had even grown fund of this bird. My mother saw the boys and knew what was about to take place, she slammed on the breaks and got out of the car screaming at these young boys but one of the boys shot Seemoore as soon as we got back into the car. Of course I was screaming and crying watching Seemoore fall to the ground in a spiral motion. I got out of the car to keep them from shooting him again while my mother ran after the children. Seemoore looked at me as I was crying, amazingly his owner that I had never met showed up and picked him up and rushed him to the vet. I was sick, I had no idea what had happened to my friend. They had said thank you for saving him from any further damage. Understandably they had to take care of him. Later I was invited to the ranch to see where Seemoore called home. Wow I thought a circus bird! It’s not every day that you got to see where a crow lived. He had a great big giant silver shinny (HIS FAVORITE) cage. Sadly in this cage was a sad broken wing wrapped in white bandages. I opened my paper bag and pulled out a mirror I had bought for him with a shinny bell and a sharpening tool. I was able to go into his cage and hang it up. As he looked at himself in the mirror I heard Seemoore say “SEEMOORE”. I smiled, my friend Seemoore was going to be just fine. I was walking out and he wanted to follow but wasn’t allowed to go out of his cage. This was the first time I had seen Seemoore behind bars so to speak. Don’t get me wrong he would fly back to the ranch every night to sleep and eat. He loved his family very much so as he did his friends. Seemoore made a full recovery and did fly a year later. He was asked to stay out for a short time. His feeding times were changed to make sure of it. I hope you like my story, it is true but many people find hard to believe! Thank you for your story my husband finally believes my story! Lisa Oram Garland