I immediately think of sci-fi films; Bladerunner (if you’re old enough), Ex-Machina would be my choice - who remembers Honda’s Asimo also.
Why on earth am I waffling on about robots and AI, well it could be the future of Koi Judging!
At this years All Japan Show (Ryutsu Centre Inc. Tokyo) you may have noticed a separate section dedicated to the AirsKoi Show, clue in the first two letters of the name.
This was the first of its kind photo show; entries were accepted worldwide but restricted to one show class (Kohaku). The AirsKoi iOS App judged the show, with no (or little) human intervention.
Exhibitors were issued with the below instructions (along with the colour palette, placed in the bowl when you take your photographs).
There is a link (Members Facebook Group) from last November’s Niigata World Nishikigoi Summit; you'll find a 10/15 minute segment in that video explaining the App, alongside some of the features (Japanese translation into English, always good fun).
Here's the YouTube link.
You can see a great deal of thought and planning has clearly gone into this.
Various design and analytical decisions must have been taken, past judging criteria will have been looked at, alongside Certified ZNA Judges potentially being quizzed.
I would imagine previous judging decisions (from Japanese ZNA Shows) could have been 'played back' via the App, improving it's logic in the process.
Pure speculation if we would ever see this at a UK Koi Show, but it does raise some interesting points.
From the small amount of social media feedback I’ve seen, this quite possibly is the future of online and photographic koi shows, but for this to replace a ‘real' Judges eyes, I'd say the virtual Jury is out...
Feel free to get in touch via chairman@bkks.co.uk
