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Kiro, the Foosball Robot
JasonFleischer writes "Although the official line from the RoboCup competition is that robots should be ready to challenge humans on the soccer
field by the year 2050, we don't have to wait that long to see man-machine
competition in the bar.
Researchers in Germany have developed a table football (foosball, table soccer, whatever) robot. The human challenger(s) take the red team, while the machine works the blue side, using an overhead video camera to see what's happening on the table. The conference paper shows that while the machine generally wins against the normal bar-amatuer it has no chance against a human grandmaster. But these kinds of things are always improving, after all look how big a deal the man-machine chess competition turned out to be. So perhaps the current table football world champions should be watching their backs."
...someone else to kick my ass at that game.
Until this thing starts talking smack while racking up the goals, I'm not impressed...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
What is the world coming to when...
"foosball" and "grandmaster" is used in the same paragraph.
Of course, I didn't realize that "table football world champions" actually existed either. Isn't that decided by the last drunken game... "And thhhiss is for the cchampionship ooffff thheee wwwwwooorrllldddd."
Davak
People play games in bars? I thought bars were for drinking.. serious drinking!
But how much has this normal bar-amatuer had to drink?
The fact that there is a human grandmaster of foosball somehow makes my life seem less meaningless. :)
Bringing computers into pubs? No, No i tells ya. I work with computers all week. Theres a few things i like doing at the friday happy hour with my work mates. Thats, getting cheap or free beers and playing pool.
:/
This thing doesnt bellong in a pub. It belongs in a pinball palar... Or whatever you call those things...
Computers in pubs? pfffffffft... why dont i just start bringing beer to work?
Actualy, i make a good point, why dont i?
My point is the pub is my one place to ungeekatise myself... bringing a computer to a pub might have the oposite effect.
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
I hope the robot isn't smart enough to jam the handle at maximum speed toward an opponent, when the opponent is positioned...uhm...a little too close.
Ah, the college days of Extreme Foosball. And misinterpreting what exactly 'foos'-ing a ball is.
...
...while metabolizing a six-pack then we can talk about a fair fight.
piss easy to win if you yank a few wires when the ref is not looking
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I was momentarily surprised by this, until I remembered a TV show that was on Yorkshire Television in the 70s, in which fast bowler Freddie Trueman introduced groups of people playing pub games.
Table football, shove ha'penny, skittles, and Nine Men's Morris.
This wasn't tucked away in the afternoon or late at night. There was no afternoon or very late at night TV in those days. This was on around 7PM in the evening...
The horror! The horror!
Ah well. At least table football champions get out more than online gamers...
"Information wants to be paid"
... of table- soccer? You mean, that game with the little spinny men on bars, right?
That's sad. Very sad.
Oh well, to each his own
Just my Insert-two-quarters-for-one-credit's worth
-RickTheWizKid
hmmm... if I were wanting to create the ultimate computer foosball player, I'd just have the machine rotate all the handles at about 12000 rpm, sliding them back and forth at a 100 cycles per second.
The first time the human opponent catches the ball off the forehead at 1200 fps... FORFIET! The machine wins again.
but that's just me...
No man is an island, but Gary is a city in Indiana.
Foosball is of the DEVIL!
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
Normally, they are known by the term "frat boys".
In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
I was OK with robots taking away factory work
I am OK with robots taking away bar games
But when they start drinking beer on my behalf I draw the line!
You will have to pry my proprietary software $$$ from my cold dead hands!
What the hell is that? Is that something like the little table soccer games with the bars going through the little players?
Not Quite.
Foosball started as an ancient ritual by germanic tribes when the rights over one cow or a beehive were contested.
In the original version of the game, according to archaeologists, the clay built mini humans were called "foos" (leading one to beleive that the ancient germanic tribes somehow had access to ebonics literature) and had two holes in them.
A stick was mounted through the "foo" and the other hole (the deeper of the two) was packed chock full of bullshit (Or honey, depending on what they were arguing over). The two people then effectively duelled until the "foo" or foos were shattered. This would continue a total of 6 times, while in front of both tribal elders.
The winner was the guy with the most shit from an exploded foo on him, and got to walk away with the prize.
In the event of a tie, the two people would then just fight over the item. But, if the tribal elders wound up with more shit on them than the arguing people, the item being argued over was offered up to the gods as a sacrifice, along with any remaining foos.
The game evolved throughout the centuries to include a borded, fenced in table (to prevent normal citizens from being splattered) and eventually, the populace grew so skilled that multiple foos were used at once within the box.
So there you have it. A lot of bullshit.
krystal_blade... (you know that was funny)
It will be easy to motivate our fellow man; there is hardly anything people treasure more than not being annihilated.
I don't think this is the way it's supposed to go. I haven't seen Terminator 3 yet, but I'm pretty sure Skynet doesn't begin with a withering attack on humanity's carefully-crafted illusion that foosball is anything other than spinning the handles as quickly as you can and screaming, "BOOOYAH! IN YOUR FACE!"
You clearly have never seen me play. Eyes, heads, jockers... its all fair game when I'm on the table... can't block my shot if you're busy protecting your eyes or family jewels!
The winner was the guy with the most shit from an exploded foo on him, and got to walk away with the prize.
So, the moral is: "If the foo shits, wear it".
but does the computer have full control over all the umm (forgive my foosball knowledge) "handles" at all time. I mean part of the game is having to let go and grab the next one. Kind of an unfair advantage if the computer does not have to do so.
:)
Actually, I wanna know if we can still grab onto the far end of our opponents' handles. "Compute this, you metal monstrosity!"
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
from current world table football champions:
With millions of players and competitions being held worldwide, in 1993, Frenchman Laurent Garnier decided to create an independent world-governing association, now known as the Federation of International Sports Table Football (FISTF).
So THATS how it all started. Red Team, Blue Team. Humans versus Machines...we are all doomed!
Or maybe I should unplug from the matrix hype once in awhile.
How do you make the robot buy you a beer when you win? If you lose, what do you buy it -- a can of WD-40?
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
I will now forever be remembered as a robot. thanks a bunch!