Robot Dogs Find Poker a Fun, Safe, and Skillful Sport
Perhaps the oldest, cheesiest painting in the world is the black velvet special of a fantasy in which dogs are playing poker; it's so overplayed, the concept only can draw a weak grin at best. Now imagine how quickly that sickly smile would turn to a sudden frown if the dogs were playing against you, and winning.
Sony had developed a product called an Artificial Intelligence Robot built to resemble a dog, and that was all the inspiration two Australian college students needed. Nicholas Dahm and Mark Johnson, information technology students at Griffith University in Brisbane, programmed the robot dog to play poker.
Their project, which they displayed at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre as part of the university's Student Expo, involved programming both a module to analyze the dog's hand, and another to analyze opponent's play and behavior.
The hand was "read" to the dog either via wireless connection, or by voice command. The robot would wag its tail at some good hands; but it could also bluff and wag when the cards were bad.
Although the dog robot was capable of beating amateurs, it had not yet been developed to a level of complexity necessary to beat experts and pros.
Sony's robot dogs have vision via a camera, respond to voice training, and have been programmed by other users to perform fairly complex tasks; a soccer league featuring the machines exists. But Sony no longer makes the machines; they were discontinued in 2006.
Too bad. It sounds like, with a little training, it could outperform and outthink many U.S. Congressmen. Right, Representative Spencer Bachus?
