Play GNU Chess On Your Scanner 157
leighklotz writes "Debian developer and Internet Mail Archive founder Jeff Breidenbach of PARC has made GlyphChess, a chess-playing
copier using Python, GNU Chess and DataGlyphs attached to
the bottom of the pieces. DataGlyphs are cool 2D barcodes made out of / and \ marks for ones and
zeros that use the coding from CDs for error coding. If you don't happen to have a Xerox machine at home, it also works with SANE..."
Award winning... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Award winning... (Score:5, Interesting)
From the article:
Why
Like many fun hacks, GlyphChess has paid off in unexpected ways. First, testing DataGlyph software and algorithm changes is a lot more engaging. It is hard to get excited about 99.98% vs. 99.97% decode rates in testsuite #73, but if a rook disappears, well that is simply unacceptable! We've found GlyphChess an excellent diagnostic and quality assurance motivator that inspires rapid bug hunting and closure. Second, it turns out some of the software technology refined for GlyphChess is applicable to more boring, but commercially important domains. Finally, GlyphChess is a compelling demonstration vehicle for DataGlyph Toolkit technical capabilities, including our DataGlyph location routines, our ability to decode arbitrarily rotated DataGlyphs, and our very high tolerance of variation in scan resolutions and positioning. GlyphChess works and it works well.
We also gained valuable experience about DataGlyph application building.
Re:Award winning... (Score:5, Funny)
This actually just jogged my hamster into "what if" mode...
Wouldn't it be really cool if the chess pieces used RFID chips to identify themselves to a board (not a scanner, but a real chess board). Said board could move the players around with magnets. It wouldn't be too complicated if you designed it properly. The board would have to be large enough for the players to move in between each other... Actually, on a somewhat more complicated level, make it small so the other players have to *move* out of the way when the computer takes a turn.
Not only would it be fun for hours, but you could probably start a psychic chess network and charge people to play chess with their dead grandmother's.
Re:Award winning... (Score:5, Interesting)
I had that idea a couple years ago too, except you forgot: network chess becomes amazingly fun when your friend is in your house as a ghost! They should build this & bundle with Chessmaster ?000 with network capability, so friends without the board can play on their PC!
Re:Award winning... (Score:2, Funny)
1. Design chess that uses RFID chips for identification to the board.
2. Design bord that could move chess pieces with magnets.
3. Start a psychic chess network.
4. Profit.
FINALLY!!! The step 3 has been described!!!
Re:Award winning... (Score:1)
Great idea but you're about 25 years too late. Back when chess computers first came out (I'm thinking 1978 or so) I remember one that was just as you describe. It was a full-size board, about two inches thick, you could pick the pieces up to move and it would slide it's reply.
In answer to the obvious question, how
Re:Award winning... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Award winning... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Award winning... (Score:5, Interesting)
On the same page you'll note that they also designed and tested an ejection system for Buran (Soviet Space Shuttle) cosmonauts.
Re:Award winning... (Score:1)
Amazing.
Re:Award winning... (Score:2)
Re:Award winning... (Score:1)
Re:Award winning... (Score:2)
Re:Award winning... (Score:1)
Chess playing copier? (Score:5, Funny)
How do you undo a move, tear up the last page of paper?
Re:Chess playing copier? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Chess playing copier? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Chess playing copier? (Score:1)
Re:Chess playing copier? (Score:2)
... sort of like the dupe stories?
soar losers (Score:5, Funny)
Re:soar losers (Score:2, Funny)
Soar? (Score:1)
Re:And when you win (Score:1, Funny)
Oh wait, you're dead.
*rummages through lane.exe's pockets*
Solomon-Reed Article text (slashdotted) (Score:5, Informative)
by Barry A. Cipra
Reprinted from SIAM News, Volume 26-1, January 1993
In this so-called Age of Information, no one need be reminded of the importance not only of speed but also of accuracy in the storage, retrieval, and transmission of data. It's more than a question of "Garbage In, Garbage Out." Machines do make errors, and their non-man-made mistakes can turn otherwise flawless programming into worthless, even dangerous, trash. Just as architects design buildings that will remain standing even through an earthquake, their computer counterparts have come up with sophisticated techniques capable of counteracting the digital manifestations of Murphy's Law.
What many might be unaware of, though, is the significance, in all this modern technology, of a five-page paper that appeared in 1960 in the Journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The paper, "Polynomial Codes over Certain Finite Fields," by Irving S. Reed and Gustave Solomon, then staff members at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, introduced ideas that form the core of current error-correcting techniques for everything from computer hard disk drives to CD players. Reed-Solomon codes (plus a lot of engineering wizardry, of course) made possible the stunning pictures of the outer planets sent back by Voyager II. They make it possible to scratch a compact disc and still enjoy the music. And in the not-too-distant future, they will enable the profitmongers of cable television to squeeze more than 500 channels into their systems, making a vast wasteland vaster yet.
"When you talk about CD players and digital audio tape and now digital television, and various other digital imaging systems that are coming--all of those need Reed-Solomon [codes] as an integral part of the system," says Robert McEliece, a coding theorist in the electrical engineering department at Caltech.
Why? Because digital information, virtually by definition, consists of strings of "bits"--0s and 1s--and a physical device, no matter how capably manufactured, may occasionally confuse the two. Voyager II, for example, was transmitting data at incredibly low power--barely a whisper--over tens of millions of miles. Disk drives pack data so densely that a read/write head can (almost) be excused if it can't tell where one bit stops and the next one (or zero) begins. Careful engineering can reduce the error rate to what may sound like a negligible level--the industry standard for hard disk drives is 1 in 10 billion--but given the volume of information processing done these days, that "negligible" level is an invitation to daily disaster. Error-correcting codes are a kind of safety net--mathematical insurance against the vagaries of an imperfect material world.
The key to error correction is redundancy. Indeed, the simplest error-correcting code is simply to repeat everything several times. If, for example, you anticipate no more than one error to occur in transmission, then repeating each bit three times and using "majority vote" at the receiving end will guarantee that the message is heard correctly (e.g., 111 000 011 111 will be correctly heard as 1011). In general, n errors can be compensated for by repeating things 2n + 1 times.
But that kind of brute-force error correction would defeat the purpose of high-speed, high-density information processing. One would prefer an approach that adds only a few extra bits to a given message. Of course, as Mick Jagger reminds us, you can't always get what you want--but if you try, sometimes, you just might find you get what you need. The success of Reed-Solomon codes bears that out.
In 1960, the theory of error-correcting codes was only about a decade old. The basic theory of reliable digital communication had been set forth by Claude Shannon in the late 1940s. At the same time, Richard Hamming introduced an elegant approach to single-error correction and double-error detection. Through the 1950s, a number of researchers began experimenting with a variety of error
patents (Score:2)
actually, that was my point.. (Score:2)
Analog Chess (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Analog Chess (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Analog Chess (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Analog Chess (Score:1)
Mod Parent Up
Sounds more like solid state to me (Score:2)
Wow! (Score:1, Troll)
Misleading (Score:4, Insightful)
Their web server (Score:5, Funny)
Paper Jam (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Paper Jam (Score:2)
Re:Paper Jam (Score:1)
Just great! (Score:4, Funny)
It's a cheap trick! (Score:5, Funny)
It's all a ploy to give him an unfair advantage over GNU Chess!
Re:It's a cheap trick! (Score:2)
Games with hardware (Score:2)
talk about a long time to play (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Picture (Score:2, Informative)
DataGlyphs are proprietary (Score:5, Informative)
Re:DataGlyphs are proprietary (Score:2)
Re:DataGlyphs are proprietary (Score:2, Interesting)
I have always wanted to work on an opensource project to put business card info in a standardised format into a 2d barcode you can print on the back of your business cards. Someone can then just slap the card in a scanner and have correct information put straight into their address book.
Yet another item on the ever increasing 'cool ideas if i ever get some spare time' stack.
misleading title (Score:4, Insightful)
While you can buy pressure sensitive boards to attach to the computer, these are pretty expensive. It's a lot easier to play chess on a real board instead of the screen. Notice that when grandmasters play computers there is a person who runs the computer and moves the pieces. So overall, this is a pretty cool hack if you happen to be a serious chess player who also has a sufficient copier already sitting around.
Re:misleading title (Score:1)
GNU Chess is a GNU Chess Program. Fancy that eh?
Concerning cool uses of a scanner... (Score:3, Funny)
Big deal (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess? (Score:5, Funny)
Listen (Score:2)
For Sale: Collector's Edition Replica U.S. $100.00 bills from the early 1980's - for private display only. Packs of 50 go for just $299.95 (no checks). Sale price good thru 7/4/03.
Re:Listen (Score:2)
Archeologic Implications... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Archeologic Implications... (Score:2)
Re:Archeologic Implications... (Score:2)
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Finally! (Score:1)
Re:Finally! (Score:3, Funny)
DataGlyphs predate the PARC spinout (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, on the same history page, in the Mid 80's section, you'll see an entry for an expert system named Pride developed at PARC. Pride helped Xerox design their first line of desktop copiers, and is quite famous within the company.
I worked for (long lamented) Xerox AI systems from 1986-88, and consulted for them off and on through 1994, which is how I know about this.
Re:DataGlyphs predate the PARC spinout (Score:2)
Yep, that's pretty cool. I made the connection only recently when I was browsing the WikiWeb. I wish I had known the connection before.
Re:Finally! (Score:1)
Re:Finally! (Score:2, Informative)
For those who are too lazy to click on the link, here is the relevant info:
Integrate critical business information into electronic workflows with FlowPort. Enable the integration of paper documents with groupware, e-mail/messaging and document management systems. Leverage network digital devices, such as digital copiers and Internet fax machines.
FlowPort(TM) features a unique user interface that gives users the capability to access and control documents wit
Playing chess on your scanner (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Playing chess on your scanner (Score:1)
I don't understand the problem.
Do you contend that strong typing is inherently wrong? Or that Cs default casting should be better at guessing what you mean? Or what?
-Peter
Games on your scanner (Score:2)
Great New Science needs a name. (Score:1)
Yeah...but what would be REALLY cool... (Score:2, Interesting)
Webcam would be better, and Go instead of chess! (Score:3, Interesting)
Some more details -- the software would constantly grab images of the board and process them in realtime. It should be able to use the redundancy to correct for errors and also to know when a move is done (since you'll move your hand away from the board for at least a dozen frames or so, even if you play fast). The board is a nice regular rectangle, and pieces are black and white circles -- even at an odd angle, it should be easy to determine the full board position.
I feel confident I could do it, but it would take me tens of hours of coding/testing, and I don't have the time, but I bet someone would love to do this for a senior project and opensource the code... please... :)
Re:Webcam would be better, and Go instead of chess (Score:1)
It seems like a very doable image recognition problem and you could probably make the software flexible enough so that it would be board and piece independant, even for chess.
Than again, it's easy to speak in could and would haves.
Bladerunner!?!? (Score:2)
Finally... (Score:1)
Concerning the position notation (Score:1)
Proof positive... (Score:1)
Source code for Reed-Solomon encoder/decoder (Score:3, Informative)
https://sourceforge.net/projects/rscode/
My Chess Idea (Score:2)
Playing around with the concept on a real board, this added a whole new dimension to chess playing. I tried programming on my C64, but never ended up completing it (damn pain in the ass machine language programming.
Re:My Chess Idea (Score:1)
Basically, both players could move at the same time.
Slashdot has probably covered this already, but a site called Kung Fu Chess [kungfuchess.com] hosts a version of chess "where you never wait your turn", along with a few other games based on the no-waiting concept. I'm sure it does brain damage to your regular chess game if you play it too much, but I find it quite enjoyable.
What if the glyphs are upside down? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What if the glyphs are upside down? (Score:2)
Re:Is there anything like Slashdot only good? (Score:1, Funny)
You know, where people are.
Re:Is there anything like Slashdot only good? (Score:1)
Re:Is there anything like Slashdot only good? (Score:2)
Obviously, about 150 have commented on it, yourself included. Counting people that probably didn't comment, that has to be more than a "tiny percentage". And anyway, even if it is, this isn't your pet site; nobody is making you surf over here, and nobody is making you read any particular article. Don't like it? Leave... immature attitudes around here are in sufficient abu
Re:Is there anything like Slashdot only good? (Score:1)
1. new standards
2. new (and old) algorithms
3. new hardware (and good deals on hardware)
4. new hobby projects
5. *optional* evils laws that violate our right to free speech. but not geared towards people being upset that they can't pirate CDs and DVDs, which is what most slashdotters do.
But I'm a Programmer by trade and an eletronics hobbist. So I'm going to be biased.
Re:This is the problem with Linux (Score:2)
Let's look at these in order:
Re:This is the problem with Linux (Score:5, Funny)
... like Microsoft BOB? Clippy? DOS 4.0? Windows Millenium? IIS? (Well, maybe they weren't so talented after all).
Re:This is the problem with Linux (Score:2, Interesting)
In a way, of course, he's right. By it's very nature, the Linux community is somewhat fractuous, and not nearly as efficient as it could be. Old news, even if the problem isn't solved. (what, everyone doesn't use KDE? oh)
But it doesn't apply here.
This is a case of brilliantly applied science, and if you don't think that it is useful, consider a few of the implications. This is EXACTLY the type of technology
Re:This is the problem with Linux (Score:2)
Bullshit - in almost every case, it gives the error message "can't find suitable decompressor" - and this is on a machine running XP connected to the net.
As to my experience w. winshit, I was writing windows code (w/o using their stupid "foundation classes" - or any "framework") over a decade ago.
So stuff it, AC Troll!
Re:Resources (Score:3, Informative)
Well, first of all, he started the project over christmas since he was laid up with a broken leg, and not actually expected to do any useful work.
Second of all, his manager seemed to think so.
Thirdly, most research looks "useless" at first glance. PARC is a research place. If people like you were running it, I guess ethernet and GUIs would never have been invented.
Now if only we could figure out how to profit on any of those cool useless inventions.
Re:Resources (Score:2)
There are engineers in WHEELCHAIRS who come up with more useful inventions than this.
The dude's question is valid. Why do this?
Re:Resources (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't get why people get pissy about cool hacks like this being "usele
Re:Resources (Score:3, Funny)
Bah who needs 'em. I've got a CLI(and it even runs at 1280x1024 in framebuffer mode) and ethernet is overrrated. What does it do that i couldn't do with some hi-tech cans and string. Don't even have to deal with shitty construction cable breaking that way.