YouTuber and engineer Mark Rober presents a robot that can win any game of Rock-Paper-Scissors in a matter of milliseconds. His trick? He can detect the opponent’s hand movement in the blink of an eye.
Who is “Rocky”? The YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober is known for making complex technology exciting and understandable. His latest project is a specially designed robotic arm named Rocky, which has a single skill: It can play the children’s game Rock-Paper-Scissors in real-time and win almost every game. The robot achieves a reaction time that is hardly perceivable to a human opponent.
How does it work? The robot uses high-speed cameras and special sensors to analyze the opponent’s hand movements. An infrared motion sensor captures the movements of the hand and fingers a hundred times per second. This data is sent to a minicomputer built into Rocky’s body. Algorithms analyze the images to predict, a fraction of a second before the complete hand movement, whether rock, paper, or scissors is chosen.
Once it knows the outcome, it sends a signal to Rocky’s robotic hand, which then executes the appropriate counter-move with servomotors. According to Mark Rober, this process happens so quickly that the human eye can hardly follow it.
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Whoever manages to defeat Rocky receives 9,500 euros
Rober has issued a challenge: Whoever can defeat Rocky can win 9,500 euros (10,000 dollars). This challenge is meant to demonstrate how difficult it is to compete against a system that reacts in fractions of a second and relies on precise technology. According to Rober, even tricks that are known to improve your chances of winning are not helpful.
Does a tactic help? A study has found how to increase your chances of winning in the next duel (via arxiv.com). Researchers examined over 54,000 games of Rock-Paper-Scissors and found a typical pattern in human gameplay behavior, which they call “Win-Stay, Lose-Shift.” Players tend to choose the same symbol again after a victory while often switching to a different option after a defeat:
You can improve your chances of winning by consciously switching to the next symbol in the cycle after a victory – for example, from rock to paper. If you lose, you should choose the previous symbol. A simple pattern that works like a small cycle.
But does this also help in a duel against Rocky? The high prize amount clearly underscores Rober’s confidence in his own technology.
More tech: While Mark Rober’s robotic arm “Rocky” wins at Rock-Paper-Scissors in a flash, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are working on robots with “Physical Intelligence” for more complex tasks. Yet another company is already much further ahead and could soon surpass Elon Musk: Elon Musk says there will be more robots than people by 2040 – A billion-dollar company could help with that
