Goodwill & York Exponential Unveil Image Capture & Data Annotation System; Six Receive Certification

On Tuesday, November 13th, Artemis Initiative partner York Exponential introduced its recently developed image capture and data annotation system prototype at MoKan Goodwill headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. This system is another step in the non-profit's efforts to prepare job seekers for new employment opportunities in the forthcoming 4th Industrial Revolution.

Goodwill discussed plans to revolutionize its retail and mission models by embracing future state technologies through a newly developed system that will expand and improve donation production. On display was the automation of identifying items using robotics and machine learning by sorting donated goods for best use of commodities among

e-commerce, salvage and retail. This innovative process is the first technology to classify discrete random clothing by size, type, brand and quality. Furthermore, this unique model as a business and service provider will allow MoKan Goodwill to leverage its 14 stores, and potentially more than 3,200 retail locations in the Goodwill network, to form a new business case with a Mission mind.

Additionally, on-site data annotation training was conducted with newly hired Data Capture Associates. Six individuals received a data annotation level 1 certification after completing their training. These Data Capture Associates expertise in photo processing and data capture will be instrumental in advancing Goodwill’s computer vision machine learning system to accurately and quickly identify and sort donations.

In February 2020, Goodwill of Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas announced the Artemis Initiative, an effort to empower the workforce of the future by planning, training, and educating job seekers on future state technologies and the evolution of jobs and the labor market.