| Peter Del Bosque | 06/28/2012 1:22AM
At the University of Tokyo, Ishikawa-Oku Laboratory, research engineers developed what they call, the “Janken” (rock-paper-scissors) robot. When you view the Youtube video, you can see the human opponent attempt to confuse the robot by varying the speed at which rock-paper-scissors was selected. In every confrontation, the robot won. In the video, the clip is slowed down to show how quickly the robot decides whether to choose rock-paper or scissors.
Is it that we are too predictable as a species, or is there another phenomena at work?
What the robot is actually doing to win every time is what we humans call cheating.
You may wonder, how does a robot cheat against a human? Well, have you ever played rock-paper-scissors with someone and thought you could sense what hand they were going to play just an instant before they played their hand? Well, maybe we notice some kind of subtle differences in hand and eye movement or maybe we subconsciously read the others' body language.
Whatever the case is, it seems the Japanese have found a way to simulate the response with a robot. They simply use a high speed camera that can recognize different hand shapes. Within a fraction of a second, or more precisely, within a millisecond, the robot discovers what hand gesture you will use next and responds with the winning hand accordingly.
Robotic engineers are becoming more and more resourceful and are capable of discovering new and exciting ways to use robots to better enhance people's daily lives.
I wonder if it would not be wise to create a robot that can see and react to our movements within 1 millisecond. I would go so far as to say, if robots were used against us in war or to cause anarchy, destruction, or to be used as a means of terrorism, a robot that can see tiny subtleties in human movement would have a huge advantage against us. Although I'd like to think robots wouldn't be used for such inhumanities, I think it is safe to say, there is a chance this whole robot thing could backfire. I'm just saying.
If you would like to know more about new advances in robotics, check out these articles...
Here is the Youtube video for you to enjoy.
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