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Play GNU Chess On Your Scanner

Posted by timothy on from the time-on-hands dept.

leighklotz writes "Debian developer and Internet Mail Archive founder Jeff Breidenbach of PARC has made GlyphChess, a chess-playing copier using Python, GNU Chess and DataGlyphs attached to the bottom of the pieces. DataGlyphs are cool 2D barcodes made out of / and \ marks for ones and zeros that use the coding from CDs for error coding. If you don't happen to have a Xerox machine at home, it also works with SANE..."

2 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Award winning... by HornyBastard77 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Maybe not.

    From the article:

    Why

    Like many fun hacks, GlyphChess has paid off in unexpected ways. First, testing DataGlyph software and algorithm changes is a lot more engaging. It is hard to get excited about 99.98% vs. 99.97% decode rates in testsuite #73, but if a rook disappears, well that is simply unacceptable! We've found GlyphChess an excellent diagnostic and quality assurance motivator that inspires rapid bug hunting and closure. Second, it turns out some of the software technology refined for GlyphChess is applicable to more boring, but commercially important domains. Finally, GlyphChess is a compelling demonstration vehicle for DataGlyph Toolkit technical capabilities, including our DataGlyph location routines, our ability to decode arbitrarily rotated DataGlyphs, and our very high tolerance of variation in scan resolutions and positioning. GlyphChess works and it works well.

    We also gained valuable experience about DataGlyph application building.

  2. Re:Award winning... by Idarubicin · · Score: 5, Interesting
    A Russian company (Zvezda) developed helicopter ejection seats. They have been installed on Ka-50 helicopters. Here's a link.

    On the same page you'll note that they also designed and tested an ejection system for Buran (Soviet Space Shuttle) cosmonauts.

    --
    ~Idarubicin