Tuesday 11 March 2014

Man v Robot: Table tennis champion Timo Boll takes on Kuka robotic arm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/man-v-robot-table-tennis-champion-timo-boll-takes-on-kuka-robotic-arm-9184738.html

It is a project developed by the KUKA company in which they face a machine they designed to play Table tennis against Timo Boll, the world champion. Nowadays technology is advancing really quickly and AI (artificial intelligence) is now at the level in which you cannot distinguish between a human and a computer. 

A new machine called KR 6 R900 SIXX has been created to beat the table tennis world champion Timo Boll. Even though this machine is incredibly sophisticated Timo Boll was capable of winning a match against it. Why is this?. He says that the robot can't cope with some techniques leveled players use, like net calls. However he admits this machine is incredibly good.

The match ended 9-11 winning the world champion but he admits that was a hard match. The video shows how Timo Boll realizes that he is playing against a machine that doesn't behave as any other player he faced before.

This match between human against machine shows us that machines are just programs that do what they are told to do and that they will never response as if they were a human being. However would it be a time in which machines will behave as humans? Then, will we be able to distinguish if we are playing, talking... with a machine? What is already shown is that technology is not yet enough prepared.

VIDEO:

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