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    Tokyo University's unbeatable Rock, Paper, Scissors robot crushes all challengers

    Tokyo University's unbeatable Rock, Paper, Scissors robot crushes all challengers

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    Researchers at Tokyo University's Ishikawa Oku Laboratory have developed a robot that's unbeatable at Rock, Paper, Scissors. It uses a high speed camera system to respond to its opponent's move an imperceptible millisecond later.

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    rock paper scissors robot
    rock paper scissors robot

    We like to think we’re pretty good at Rock, Paper, Scissors, but this robot from the Ishikawa Oku Laboratory at Tokyo University is categorically unbeatable. It uses a high-speed camera system to determine the position and shape of its opponent’s hand down to the millisecond. For example, when you throw rock (after the requisite three fist pumps, of course) the robot can smother you with paper an imperceptible millisecond afterward. Since people can only distinguish somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 fps, the robot moves too quickly for mere mortals to realize it’s actually cheating.