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Comment by __MatrixMan__ | Hacker News Reader

Probably you're washing more than one shirt at a time, so the optimal washing parameters for the whole load is going to be some not-quite-average of the the data on all of the input QR codes, combined with whatever the machine sensors learn. Seems pretty ML to me, though the writing could use work.

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At which point the user can pick the optimal parameters anyway (and likely do a reasonable enough job) without fancy ML. Fancy ML would be things like “take out items xyz” to wash just whites.

That being said, it’s possible the ML piece is about reading multiple QR codes at once in different angles. I could see that requiring some ML. But still. It feels like a solution in search of a problem since they seem to be taking the “throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks” approach to building products.

Yeah, about 15 years ago when there were companies planning to replace barcodes with RFID tags on all products, a big selling point was that washing machines could detect red socks in a white wash.

Someone did make such a washing machine, from 2012: https://www.appliancesonline.com.au/academy/appliance-news/s...

Note the caption: "The washing machine's brains do the thinking for us".

I can't be bothered to go through the tags and think about settings. If the laundry destroys it I'll just stop buying things like that going forward. Probably there are people as lazy as me, but with a better eye for fashion. Maybe they would care?

Is this an actual problem that needs solving?

I wouldn't know, I wear the same thing every day, it all goes in the same load at the end of each month(ish).

But I could be convinced that our clothes would wear more slowly if the machines had more data about what they were washing.

I don't think that's likely to be true. However, there is an easy way to reduce the damage to your clothing that washing causes:

1) Wash in cold water 2) Use less detergent 3) Set your dryer on the "low heat" setting.

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