I was reading about Compugrade, a company that was grading coins with a computer. It said that they could even put decimal grades on it, like MS-67.3. I was wondering what equipment they used to do this?
It was a computer program that was written specifically to grade coins. And there was more than 1 company who tried it. They were all dismal failures. The reason they were failures is because computers are not equal to the human brain - they cannot think. Computers can only measure objective items and terms. But to grade coins requires the ability to measure subjective items and terms. Thus computers cannot do it, thus dismal failure.
Oh ok. The way one article wrote it, it was like they used some kind of scanner to measure wear in the coin.
They did, but that scanner was controlled by a computer program that interpreted what the scanner saw.
I am thinking with the way technology has changed since 20 years ago, one could start a grading company that used some kind of machine to grade the coin.
In which the computer program is written by humans. So such a program would have to almost be AI, basically be programmed to have about all human knowledge and interpretation while also having critical thinking and human like learning abilities built in to basically grade a coin just as a human would be able to. Not gonna happen in our lifetime.
A common misconception. Yes, technology has improved. But it has only improved in its ability to do things faster and come in smaller packages. It has not improved one iota in its ability to think. And that is what is required.
Yep scanning resolution has improved so now it can see more even smaller marks. So the number of marks goes up and a coin that would have been 64 under the old computer is now a 63 under the new one. And even though the computer is faster, that is offset by the finer resolution requiring longer to scan
How would you program the machine to distinguish a weak strike from high-point wear? I would expect the grading machines to issue a circulated grade for an uncirculated (but weakly-struck) CBH or FEC.
