Rahul Somvanshi
Former NASA engineer Mark Rober's robot 'Rocky' scans hand movements 100 times per second through IR sensors, making it an unbeatable rock paper scissors opponent with a $10,000 prize for anyone who can defeat it.
Photo Source: Mark Rober (YouTube)
What makes Rocky impossible to beat? The robot's servo motors react to initial hand movements before humans can complete their throw, calculating and executing winning counters with machine precision.
Research from 54,000 rock paper scissors games revealed human players tend to repeat winning throws while losers advance to next options - patterns that prove useless against Rocky's technological advantage.
"Rocky tracks the position of my hands...using an IR hand motion detector and a mini computer to determine what I'm throwing," explains Rober, detailing the sophisticated tracking system behind the robot's perfect record.
Can Tokyo's Ishikawa Lab's 2013 Janken robot, with its high-speed vision processing and "1ms Auto Pan-Tilt" tracking, match Rocky's advanced capabilities developed through CrunchLabs?
Critics debate whether Rocky's strategy of waiting for initial hand movements constitutes "cheating" versus traditional simultaneous play rules of rock paper scissors.
The robot demonstrates seamless mid-motion throw switching while tracking opponent movements, showcasing modern advances in motion detection and servo response systems.
Beyond gaming applications, Rocky's 100Hz IR sensing system and rapid servo response technology hints at broader possibilities for precise motion tracking across various industries.
Millions of viewers flocked to Rocky's demonstration video, reflecting growing public fascination with robotics systems that push the boundaries of human-machine competition.
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