A schoolboy from Kirov invented a mushroom simulator.

      A student of the Kirov children's technopark Kvantorium, Bogdan Kasyanov, presented his development — a mushroom trainer called "Griboznayka", which helps children distinguish edible mushrooms from inedible ones and learn the names and characteristics of mushrooms. Bogdan's trainer was presented at the all‑Russian competition "Big Reconnaissance. School", organized as part of the national project "Youth and Children".

      The trainer's principle of operation is simple: a mushroom specimen is placed in the device, the system recognizes it using a webcam and machine vision technologies, and then voices brief information about the mushroom. The mushroom trainer has two modes: "training" and "knowledge testing".

      The inventor of the trainer said the idea for the project came to him when he learned how many people suffer from mushroom poisonings. "I wanted to create a device that would help children gain important knowledge in a playful way," Bogdan said.

      The regional government reported that in the "Medicine, Social and Educational Technologies" category Bogdan, together with his mentor Maria Votintseva, took second place: the "Griboznayka" project received high marks from the experts and attracted great interest.