Pre-reading questions:
- What is your favorite Japanese food? Why is it your favorite?
- In your opinion, what restaurant serves the best ramen? Please explain.
Vocabulary:
- data scientist /DEY-tuh SAHY-uhn-tist/
- upload /UHP-lohd/
- classify /KLAS-uh-fahy/
- prediction /pri-DIK-shuhn/
- placement /PLEYS-muhnt/
[noun] a person whose job is to collect, analyze, and interpret large amounts of data
My father is a data scientist for an international computer company.
[verb] to copy information to a larger computer system or to the internet
I already uploaded the photos from our trip to Hokkaido.
[verb] to divide things into groups according to type
Do you classify your tasks by subject?
[noun] to identify something based on knowledge or data
We were surprised by how accurate the computer’s predictions were.
[noun] the position of something
The hidden placement of the warriors is part of the general’s strategy.
Ramen fans can now easily identify different bowls of ramen served by Ramen Jiro. This is by using a custom of Google’s AutoML Vision. Kenji Doi, a data scientist, collected over 48,000 photos of ramen from Ramen Jiro’s 41 shops. Ramen Jiro is a chain of ramen shops that is based in Tokyo.
Doi uploaded these photos to AutoML, which took one whole day to analyze and classify all the data. It was able to accurately identify the menu item about 95% of the time. It bases its predictions on the cuts of the meat used and the placement of the toppings on the bowl.
Doi uploaded these photos to AutoML, which took one whole day to analyze and classify all the data. It was able to accurately identify the menu item about 95% of the time. It bases its predictions on the cuts of the meat used and the placement of the toppings on the bowl.
Comprehension Questions:
- Who is the data scientist that uploaded 48,000 photos to Google’s software?
- Where did Doi get the photos he used for the software?
- How long did it take for AutoML Vision to analyze the data?
- How accurate are the software’s predictions?
- How does the software classify a bowl of ramen on a picture?
Discussion Questions:
- When is the best time to eat ramen?
- In your opinion, is ramen important in Japanese culture? Discuss.
- Aside from ramen, what are the other kinds of food that Japan is known for? Why do you think are they popular?
- Do you like to take pictures of your food? Why or why not?
- Do you think a software like Doi’s is helpful? Why or why not?