This Real-Life Harry Potter Sorting Hat Can Tell You Which House You Belong In
We’ve always known deep inside our hearts that we belong in Gryffindor — or at least, that we have some magical qualities. After all, we love Butterbeer, think Ron Weasley is seriously cute and we always solemnly swear to be up to no good. Even just visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter feels like returning home. But while there’s absolutely no doubt about it in our minds, we’ve never had real, scientific, super-legit proof we belong at Hogwarts. Until now.
It’s time to finally say goodbye to all those sleepless nights you’ve spent wondering if you’re cut from the same cloth as Mr. Potter himself, or if your Hogwarts BFF would be Draco Malfoy or Cho Chang. And it’s all thanks to Ryan Anderson, a solutions architect who works at IBM Watson and is also a dad of two cutie patootie Harry Potter fans.
Ryan is the creative mastermind responsible for bringing Hogwarts’ Sorting Hat to life, and yes, the hat is able to tell you *exactly* where you belong in J.K. Rowling’s magical universe. We haven’t been this excited since the The Cursed Child sneak peek and our first look at the Potter fam and Weasley clan all grown up!
So how does it work? Ryan (with help from his six- and eight-year-old daughters) took a whole bunch of descriptive words and phrases and linked them to the four houses in various ways using code. Now, all Potter fanatics have to do is put the Sorting Hat on — just like in the books and movies — tell it a bit about themselves and voila! Your HP fate is decided.
Okay, so the hat doesn’t look exactly like the one we’re used to, but as you can see in the video above, it’s still magical. Using wizarding logic, i.e. IBM Watson’s Natural Language Classifier, which “interprets the intent behind a set of text” and its speech to text service, the hat can interpret everything you say and sort you accordingly.
That means no lying, please, or you might end up somewhere you don’t belong. Like making DIY moon-crystal necklaces with Luna Lovegood in Ravenclaw’s common room. Actually, that sounds pretty wonderful… can we get a re-sort?
Which Hogwarts house do you belong in? Tweet us @BritandCo.
(h/t Refinery 29, photo via Warner Bros)
