Spotting a perfect pizza is apparently too challenging for us mere mortals. Lamenting the “inaccuracy and subjectivity” of quality controllers in pizza factories, Da-Wen Sun and Tadhg Brosnan of the National University of Ireland in Dublin say the task demands a more rigorous mathematical approach best done by a machine. They have turned to fuzzy logic and designed algorithms that can analyse snapshots of pizzas from digital cameras and automatically pick out rejects – the ones that just don’t look tasty enough. In two papers in the Journal of Food Engineering (vol 57, p 81 and p 91), they explain how their invention can diagnose a variety of worrisome pizza ailments, including patchy sauce, sparse coverings of toppings such as mushrooms or ham, and that bane of so many would-be perfect pizzas, a base with “poor alignment”.
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Technology
Test moderators use AI-generated writing to judge literacy standards
News
Mind
THC in cannabis may reduce nightmares in people with PTSD
News
Environment
Fishers detonate a bomb every hour on one Indonesian coral reef
News
Environment
How bad is the UK drought and how long will it continue?
News
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles