Ears and whiskers are a hint...Computers can recognize photos and careful drawings of rabbits, but quick sketches by non-artists ... not so much.

by Kevin Stacey

Computers are good at speed, numbers, and massive amounts of data, but understanding the content of a simple drawing is more difficult. Researchers at Brown and the Technical University of Berlin have produced a computer application that can identify simple abstract sketches of objects almost as often (56 percent of the time) as human viewers (73 percent).

First they took over chess. Then Jeopardy. Soon, computers could make the ideal partner in a game ...