The German computer scientist Cordelia Schmid was awarded the European Inventor Award at a ceremony in Malta on Tuesday. Schmid, who was honoured in the Research category, received the prize for her work in helping computers understand and interpret data from images. The organization behind the awards, the European Patent Office, said Schmid’s work contributes to machines being able to see images in such detail that it comes very close to humans. This opens up a wider range of applications for artificial intelligence (AI), for example with robots that can support elderly people, or recognize w…