Posted 06.27.2012 at 10:52 am
11 Comments
Scissors Beat Paper, Every Time
via Telegraph
So much for best two out of three. A robotic hand developed by engineers at the University of Tokyo will take you at rock-paper-scissors three out of three times. Then it will do it again, for as long as you car to challenge. Thus far, it hasn’t lost a game.
There’s no algorithmic wizardry or predictive computation here. The robot’s edge is purely visual. Super-fast motion sensing technology can “see” and evaluate what hand gesture a human is making in just one millisecond. One millisecond after that it makes its play--conveniently and 100 percent of the time the play that trumps whatever the human throws down. It all happens so fast as to be imperceptible to the human eye. Add it to the list of things robots simply do better.
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Can you really say that the robot is "winning" when all it is doing is responding to the human's gesture? If another human were to take that approach, we would call it cheating. The only difference is that it can cheat much faster, to a point where it's hard for us to notice.
I agree. The robot is definitely cheating. This can no longer be thought of as playing a game when no matter what you do the other player will just choose the winning gesture after you throw. Even if it is just a millisecond after.
Two "Great" minds have successfully thought about it way too hard. Congrats.
Now ask the robot hand if it cares.
Agreed. The computer has advanced knowledge of it's opponent's sign. 1 millisecond or one minute, it makes no difference. It is still cheating.
I imagine a better use of recourses and time of this robot could have been made...... sigh...
.............
Every day is a new day!
my god. imagine the frustration!! that might be enough to drive a person crazy!
Want to break its winning streak? Put a cloth in front of your hand. There is no "rule" against it.
guys whether it's cheating or not is stupid, it happens even for humans. trying to time the reveals perfectly is impossible, especially for humans there's always going to be one guy who goes first and as much as we don't want to admit it we subconsciously notice that and what we think they are going to play. only earlier.
also, cool robot!
to mars or bust!
A magician can use this to move his hand into the correct position.
I would just fake scissors and switch to paper. Go "after" the computer makes its read on you. Stick two fingers out and then follow with the rest of the fingers as late as possible.
I'll take em in a game of Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock any day.