back to article Mighty ROBOT achieves total SUPREMACY over feeble humans

No matter how many John-Wayne-inspired moments you've had in front of the mirror, you're not as quick on the draw as the Janken robot. Ishikawa Oku Laboratory in Tokyo has built the android to have a perfect score at rock-paper-scissors, identifying which way its human opponent is going to go in one millisecond. The boffins …

COMMENTS

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  1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    Cheat the cheater?

    Wonder whether this would work or does the robot adjust itself again and again?

  2. Blofeld's Cat
    Devil

    Hmm...

    I suspect that the human could win this game every time - given a sufficiently large rock...

    1. Anomynous Coward

      Re: Hmm...

      Or some fairly ordinary scissors judiciously applied.

      Probably find a piece of paper in the right place would scupper it.

      But the rock would be most fun.

    2. Michael Dunn

      Re: Hmm...

      Remember Emo Philips' put down: "A compter beat me at chess - but it was no match for me at kick-boxing."

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Buridan's donkey

    What happens if the machine is made to play another machine, or in front of a mirror? Does it explode in a fit of recusive errors? I think in philosophy its called Buridan's donkey.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Buridan's donkey

      Probably wouldn't do anything. It reacts to the motion of a human wrist. IIRC, that machine doesn't have what would qualify as a wrist. No stimulus, no response, no action.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Buridan's donkey

        <No stimulus, no response, no action>

        That's what she said

    2. Charles 9

      Re: Buridan's donkey

      To answer your question more correctly, what you're looking at isn't Buridan's Donkey (which is the problem of choosing between two options an equal distance apart and being frozen with indecision). Rather it looks like you're trying to start a classic deadlock. A device is dependent on an input, but connect two such devices to each other, and neither of them does anything because each is waiting on the other to act.

  4. Plonkybear
    Coat

    Rock, Paper, Scissors.......

    ......Lizard, Spock?

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: Rock, Paper, Scissors.......

      I believe that's now "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock, Does not compute, Blown fuse".

  5. Nerd
    Paris Hilton

    Wanking

    Looks like robots can wank

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wanking

      >Looks like robots can wank

      I'll take one!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Wanking

        Really? You'd trust your member to a robot fist?

        Perhaps that's the ultimate test in our comfort with machines: Would you trust it not to mangle your man-hood in the event of an error...

        1. Anomynous Coward

          Re: Wanking

          "Would you trust it not to mangle your man-hood in the event of an error..."

          Blue Scream of Death?

          1. FartingHippo
            Thumb Up

            @AC Blue Scream of Death

            Ha! You win. Everyone else can go home now.

            1. TRT Silver badge

              Re: @AC Blue Scream of Death

              His knob went blue and dropped off as he refused to pay extra for the tactile pressure safety sensors. The tight fisted wanker.

              1. Michael Dunn

                Re: @AC Blue Scream of Death

                Actually, a tight-fisted wanker might have sometning!

                1. TRT Silver badge

                  Re: Actually, a tight-fisted wanker might have sometning!

                  Knob-rot?

    2. TRT Silver badge
      Windows

      Re: Wanking

      I'm reminded of that song from around 30 years ago.

      I believe the firstly line went...

      "Well the members of the Argentine..."

      And IIRC it ended with "whipped margarine".

  6. Richard_C
    Devil

    goto 10

    Anyone else want to park this thing in front of a mirror and watch the fireworks...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: goto 10

      Have you not seen the film Wargames when the computer plays naughts and crosses against itself? It'll be something like that, and it'll start playing chess instead.

  7. jai

    ...

    how does that work? there's nothing in the rules that says paper has to be shown as palm up, or that rock is anything more than a clenched fist - you can have your hand horizontal (so your wrist would be the same as if showing paper with palm down) or vertical and so wrist is in same orientation as scissors.

    In fact, no reason why paper has to be shown horizontally either.

    (is this explained in the video? it's blocked by the office firewalls)

    1. edge_e

      Re: ...

      the video shows all three in the vertical plane.

      1. Michael Dunn

        Re: ...

        All three are shown in the vertical plane' Of course, chaps, must give it a sporting chance.

  8. ukgnome
    Joke

    Hurray - Humanity is saved, the robot rebellion is now powerless.

    It thinks I am going to show paper, but instead I have a gesture control system that recognises a flat open hand as launch missiles at the doofus droid!.

  9. VinceH
    Terminator

    How much more exciting would The Terminator have been...

    If the door was opened, and Arnie said "Sarah Connor?" then raised his hand and continued "I challenge you to rock, paper scissors."

    1. Michael Dunn

      Re: How much more exciting would The Terminator have been...

      And Sarah replied: "No, lt's have a judo session."

  10. C Yates
    Happy

    I for one...

    welcome our new robot overlords... and their pleasing array of wrist actions =D

  11. moonface
    Alien

    DOCTOR: Scissors cuts paper. Ha, ha! But suppose we were two computers controlling two great battle fleets, each one working perfectly logically to outmanoeuvre the other. Well, you're robots, you try it.

    SHARREL: We're perfectly

    DOCTOR: Try it! Go on.

    (The two Movellans come up with scissors and scissors twice, then stone and stone.)

    DOCTOR: Ha! You see? You're caught in an impasse of logic. You've discovered the recipe for everlasting peace. Congratulations. I'm terribly pleased.

  12. Suburban Inmate
    Happy

    Seaga Master System

    Alex Kidd in Miracle World, anyone?

  13. Arachnoid
    Thumb Down

    "Would you trust it not to mangle your man-hood in the event of an error..."

    The Big Bang Theory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb627xDlqBs

    Of course the robot is actually cheating,if you watch the last slow mo decision in the video its waiting till the human finishes making a gesture before performing its own and even I can do that.

  14. Graham Marsden

    Paging Ullr...

    So how would the robot fare against Ullr, Norse God of the Hunt and Games who always wins?

    (See The Almighty Johnsons for details)

    1. Robert E A Harvey
      Coat

      I think we did all the mighty johnson jokes up there a bit.

  15. Brian Miller
    Go

    Rock, paper, scissors ...

    HAMMER!

    Human wins.

    1. Michael Dunn

      Hammer!

      Love it.

      Yes I earn four times what you earn, but I know _where_ to place the hammer blow.

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