Steve
Society Members
vintageradio.co.nz
Posts: 734
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Post by Steve on Nov 9, 2021 9:12:27 GMT 12
Hi all, I have a student who has been developing an image search for the NZ Vintage Radio Project as a senior scholarship project - its an absolutely phenomenal achievement.  I know this is very short notice, but if anyone sees this today (Tuesday 9th November) and would like to try it, then we would love some feedback on how it could be improved, issues with it etc.It is currently on a test server - this will go away once its transitioned to the main site. The temporary address is: nzvrtest.pythonanywhere.com/image_searchKnown current problems: - Its a bit ugly and needs some styling - that is coming
- Once you select the photo of the radio you're looking for you need to click 'search' - after this you will get almost no feedback until its finished searching (this can take up to 30 seconds) - he is working on that now so this will hopefully improve. The search button will 'grey out' while the server is searching for you.
- The results often contain things that you will think 'How?!' - the whole project is AI powered and not fully 'trained' yet - not all results will make sense.
We would really appreciate some feedback and suggestions from users to include in the project documentation which must be submitted tomorrow. I know this is late notice, but your feedback would be very much appreciated. You can either just reply here or email it to me: nzvintageradios at gmail . com Feedback after today will also be much appreciated as this will be an ongoing project to help people find their radio and get information on it. It was actually one of the very first things a friend said would be needed waaay back when I first floated the idea of building the site - but its been in the too hard basket until now - here it is 😊 |
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Post by Philconut on Nov 9, 2021 11:48:43 GMT 12
What a great idea. I can't begin to understand how this might work. I tried searching for several sets and it was only moderately successful. However I do understand that it is a very new project. Congratulations and best wishes to your student.
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Steve
Society Members
vintageradio.co.nz
Posts: 734
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Post by Steve on Nov 9, 2021 12:25:38 GMT 12
Hi John, thanks for the feedback. Could you let me know what images you were searching with and what results you got? Flick them through in an email if you like.
Cheers, Steve
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Post by Peter Walsham on Nov 9, 2021 12:36:14 GMT 12
Hi Steve
It seems to work really well. The program was able to find both of the Columbus radios, a Philco, A Bell Colt, and a couple of Philips radios I asked it to (some were rather low resolution images), and the other I took with my phone just a few moments before I searched for that set, but it didn't find either of the two Gulbransen radios I searched for - however, a later search of your site suggested that you don't have images of either of those (it is very possible they are both USA made models, so it was completely understandable that it couldn't find them, as I am aware that you have only listed NZ made sets).
Please let your student know that it works really well.
Peter W
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Steve
Society Members
vintageradio.co.nz
Posts: 734
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Post by Steve on Nov 9, 2021 14:06:56 GMT 12
Thanks Peter, he is reading the forums as well to gather the feedback and it's really helpful to realise that not all images will be found - one option here could be to suggest that it could be a new model and offer the option to submit photos for researching / adding. The Gulbransen issue you had is one I am thinking about. There were so many non-Kiwi radios that were sold here in great numbers (eg: Philco 89B, Ekco SW86, etc) that they could almost be considered a Kiwi radio(ish)(maybe)(sort-of). I am considering it. It's just a slippery slope... but at some point, I'll probably add them with a way of clearly distinguishing that it was made overseas. You mentioned taking photos with your phone - you can actually do this directly if you're viewing the image-search page on your phone - the upload image button should give you an option to use your camera to obtain the photo. At least on Android - I don't know about those other fancy fruit phones though... Thanks again for the feedback  Cheers, Steve |
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Post by Peter Walsham on Nov 9, 2021 14:45:29 GMT 12
Perhaps I should have added that one of the Gulbransens is a 'tombstone' model, and your students software was able to recognise that aspect, so it must be pretty darn good stuff!
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Post by Peter Walsham on Nov 9, 2021 15:04:48 GMT 12
Perhaps I should have added that one of the Gulbransens is a 'tombstone' model, and your students software was able to recognise that aspect, so it must be pretty darn good stuff!
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Post by Peter Walsham on Nov 9, 2021 15:05:41 GMT 12
Woops - sorry about posting this twice! I have no idea how I managed to do that
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Post by elorens on Nov 10, 2021 21:12:00 GMT 12
I tried it with several images and it worked quite well. It got a Pacemaker 516A spot on, and an Ultimate FA as second choice. With this version you can't load a new image once you have one loaded already, apparently: you need to close it and re-start. Not a big problem! Congratulations to your student, Steve.
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Steve
Society Members
vintageradio.co.nz
Posts: 734
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Post by Steve on Nov 12, 2021 18:42:44 GMT 12
One thing that really helps the search system is to have a closely cropped photo to begin with. This is because most photos I've used on the site have been (manually, by me) cropped to remove backgrounds as much as possible. Over 8000 of them so far I think... This is my life now 😱 So if you try searching with a radio and include a bunch of features around it, like a table edge or other things then it can confuse the search algorithm. There are some other improvements planned, but he had been working furiously to get it completed to where it could be submitted for scholarship along with nearly 60 pages of documentation. It's a phenomenal effort. He's submitted now, so he is likely going to take a well earned rest before exams for the other subjects that aren't nearly as awesome as mine kick in Who knows, maybe he'll log in and introduce himself in time. In the meantime, feel free to continue to test it and provide feedback. If you're able to say what works and what doesn't it helps to plan improvements and fix bugs. Cheers, Steve |
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Post by Peter Walsham on Nov 12, 2021 20:34:42 GMT 12
Hi Steve
I now realise I should have mentioned that I needed to crop the photo of the Bell Colt for the search to work properly.
Our very best of wishes of success with your students scholarship. I think it will be very well deserved.
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6A8G.
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Hard working kiwi soundmixer.
Posts: 69 
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Post by 6A8G. on Nov 21, 2021 11:35:40 GMT 12
Superb!
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