MirBot app review

MirBot

Price: Free

For: iPhone, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular with iOS 6.0 or later

MirBot by DLSI, University of Alicante is a cool app that lets you train your Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to recognize anything you want.

When you first open the app, you meet MirBot, a cool-looking blue and white robot. The robot tells you that it’s just a baby, and that it wants you to show it your world. Basically, you’ll be able to train your robot to recognize things it sees; each user has his or her own MirBot that will learn independently.

The app is part of a research project; the Terms of Use explain very clearly that none of your personal info is stored but the photos you take to show to MirBot, as well as the resulting data, are stored on a remote server.

You can take a photo in landscape or portrait mode. Once you’ve done that, you “crop” the image to choose the item you want to teach your robot. Items are classified as Animal, Object, Food/Drink, and Plant.

The app also has the option to enable speech, which is also cool.

On the main screen, you have the camera button to take a photo, the Settings button, and the Library button.

MirBot was updated to Version 1.2 on December 9, 2012. The update added support for the new iPad and iPhone, made the app iOS 6 ready, made minor bug fixes and other improvements, and added the speech capability.

I think this is a fascinating app. If you’re into AI and robots, you should definitely download MirBot.