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June 20, 2006
Bored With World Cup? How About RoboCup?
While the rest of the world tunes in on the World Cup semi-finals, there was another football battle in Bremen Germany called the RoboCup, represented by 24 Universities from over a dozen countries. The four-legged tournament is the one I'm most interested in since it's football (soccer for you Americans) played by the beloved Aibo. But these aren't the domesticated variety you get at your local Sony Style shop. These Aibos are hardcore athletes with their tails and ears copped off, and team numbers painted on the sides of their faces like war-paint.
The challenge for competitors is to design software that can allow each of the four competitors on a team to communicate, strategize, out-manoeuvre, defend, and score against the opposing team. It's no small feat since each team's success is directly motivated by how well their human coaches have "trained" them.
There are 24 teams and all of them play completely independent of human control. These dogs have to think for themselves and that's where the best minds from the world's top universities come in. This is more than just about Aibos. It's about which school has the programming and engineering prowess - and victory means heavy bragging rights.
Befittingly, team Germany came out on top with their Aibos opening a can of whoop ass on the Chinese, Japanese, American, and Dutch teams (their biggest competitors).
Lets visit some key moments. (above image - Germany and Japan scrap over the ball)
more pictures after the jump
Trainers and coaches giving their Aibos the much needed pep-talk before a game
German keeper blocks the ball as teammate looks on just in case
Japan goes for the goal and launches the ball
Japan and Germany - man, the playing field can get mighty hectic!
Aibo receiving a little tune-up before a game
Japan desparetly tries to control the ball
Posted by tranism at 1:07 AM | Permalink
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June 15, 2006
Bossaball - All In The Air
This is Bossaball - a mix of volleyball, football, gymnastics and capoeira. The court is a combination of inflatables and trampolines making it easy to get good hang time to spike the ball in ways normally impossible.
This just looks like a whole lot of fun to me and I would love to try it.
more photos after the jump
Posted by diverseawareness at 1:21 AM | Permalink
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