New Phone for People Who Like Mushrooms, Hate Poisonings

Foraging for mushrooms can be fun, but getting poisoned by the wrong species always ruins a nice afternoon. Researchers at the Hagenberg College in Austria have developed software that can identify which mushrooms are safe to eat and which are poisonous, just from a photograph. This means it could easily be run on a mobile phone with a camera, to create a handy tool for foragers. It’s not sure yet clear whether magic mushrooms have been placed in the safe or poisonous category – maybe that will be a user option. [Metro]