
High speed M&M sorting machine - nbsymr
http://www.reviewmylife.co.uk/blog/2014/12/22/high-speed-mandm-sorting-machine/
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Animats
That's low-speed sorting. _This_ is high-speed sorting:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE)

That's a high-speed computer-vision optical pea sorter. Yes, each and every
pea in that huge flow of peas is examined by a computer vision system. Tiny
high-speed air jets are kicking out the rejects during the brief period the
peas are in free flight.

Here's a blueberry sorting machine, throwing out anything that doesn't look
like a round blue blueberry:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CyWvnh4YtE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CyWvnh4YtE)

That machine could sort M&Ms by color, easily.

The food industry has lots of machines like that. The technology was first
applied to large fruit like tomatoes. It's now so cheap it's applied to rice
and grains.

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stinos
Ha, came here to post this as well. High speed is relative :] I've done
similar hardware things in the past and my initial ideas when I read the
orignal article were:

\- what kind of sensor are they using that they need _2 seconds_ to scan?

\- in comparision with 2 seconds, a phone camera with results sent over
bluetooth is indeed fast. Not my branch at all, but I wonder what latencies
he's looking at? Should surely be tens if not hundreds of mSec?

~~~
whyaduck
I develop sort/test software for a semiconductor manufacturer. The M&M sorter
looks pretty fast to me :)

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frisco
It's a little M&M flow sorter! They even kind of look like cells. If you
really want your mind to be blown, go read about flow cytometers:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_cytometry#Fluorescence-
act...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_cytometry#Fluorescence-
activated_cell_sorting_.28FACS.29)

Fluorescence-activated cell sorting uses the same idea as in the M&M sorter
linked here, except with lasers instead of an iPhone camera and uses an
electron gun to deposit charge onto a droplet containing exactly one cell as
it falls through a magnetic field to sort it into bins. Madness!

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51Cards
Very cool. I just picked up a couple Mindstorms kits and have been debating my
first build challenge. This looks perfect (though it won't be as quick I'm
sure)

Edit: Just playing with the math regarding the speed of this machine
considering the M&Ms are in free fall. Nicely done!

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Zikes
I'd like to see a variant of this capable of separating a mixture of M&Ms and
Skittles.

~~~
nbsymr
So it puts all M&Ms in one pot and Skittles in the other? Or so that it can
deal with all the different colours between the two? The first would be
tricky!

~~~
icebraining
Weight them with enough accuracy; <1g → M&M, >1g → Skittle.

[http://www.scientificameriken.com/candy4.asp](http://www.scientificameriken.com/candy4.asp)

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mrestko
This reminds me of a FACS machine
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_cytometry#Fluorescence-
act...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_cytometry#Fluorescence-
activated_cell_sorting_.28FACS.29))

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dale386
Is the code posted anywhere?

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razzberryman
Very nice. If you want to reduce the shadows for sorting browns, try
backlighting the chute so that shadows can't appear on it. Basically, turn the
chute into a photography light box.

~~~
nbsymr
Thanks for the idea. I had thought about lighting the chute - But I hadn't
though about backlighting it. That sounds like it could work :)

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ChuckMcM
oh the glue, the glue! M&M sorters are great projects though. I am impressed
that the bluetooth link has the frequency response to actually get to the blue
ones before they have fallen what appears to be a few inches.

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comrh
The sound is very rhythmic. One part of a sort machine band.

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jorjordandan
Somebody buy this guy a 3d printer.

~~~
moron4hire
Hobby 3D printers are basically only good enough to print their own
replacement parts before they break again.

~~~
jshprentz
Here is a Skittles sorter built from 3D printed parts:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSEHDBSynVo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSEHDBSynVo)

It looks like a hobby 3D printer was more than good enough.

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forrest_t
if only this existed back in Van Halen's heyday

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen#Contract_riders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen#Contract_riders)

~~~
batguano
"This American Life" did a great segment explaining (as does your wikipedia
link) why the M&M's were a legit safety concern--and not just a prima-donna
move by self-indulgent rock stars:

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/386/t...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/386/transcript)

~~~
MichaelApproved
IIRC, the reason they have strange requests is so they know the crew actually
went through the list and fulfilled all requests. Asking for only red M&M
sounds silly but if you see a bowl of red M&Ms in your trailer, you know the
crew was more likely to be diligent with the other requests. Those other
requests being sound equipment and safty measures.

The point wasn't to have red M&Ms, though they taste good, it was a test to
see how well the crew followed instructions.

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seanemmer
but can it sort Skittles?

