The End IS Near - Video System Tracks Puck to Beat You at Air Hockey

An upgraded robot developed by General Electric Fanuc and Nuvation Research can beat most human air hockey players, its developers claim.





A video system that tracks the puck's position sends coordinates to a special PC board every 10 milliseconds. So far, the robot has defeated every human opponent when running in 32-bit mode, averaging three times as many goals as human players. The algorithm's success resulted from revising its strategy whenever a goal was scored against it.

So the bot revises its strategy but we humans don’t … what does this tell us???

Cybercast credit: YouTube

YouTube from the Moon?

The X PRIZE Foundation and Google Inc. has announced the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a $30 million prize purse.



Private companies from around the world will compete to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon that is capable of roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and data back to the Earth.

"The Google Lunar X PRIZE calls on entrepreneurs, engineers and visionaries from around the world to return us to the lunar surface and explore this environment for the benefit of all humanity," said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. "We are confident that teams from around the world will help develop new robotic and virtual presence technology, which will dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration."

Cybercast credit: YouTube