Artificial intelligence tries QWOP

QWOP, arguably the most difficult video game ever, was created by Bennett Foddy in 2008. The point is to control a sprinter with four keys that move his thighs and calf muscles. A few seconds in, and you’re reduced to just trying to control your laughter. Most of us gave up pretty early, but some took QWOP as a challenge and got the runner through a 100-meter dash. The QWOP record, as of now, is 48 seconds! Could an algorithm trained to play QWOP do any better? Wesley Liao trained one to find out. While his AI learned to make the runner perform better than I ever will, it could not outdo the best human gamers. Read more on the experiment at Gizmodo.


  • Best site for figuring out what computer games are coming out



    Rawg.io is the best site I’ve so far found for tracking and identifying forthcoming and recent video game releases, with useful information about the games, autoplaying video thumbs so you can see if it’s your sort of thing, and extensive filters for platforms, genres and date ranges. READ THE REST


  • Robotic pool cue makes the shot for you



    The mathematical and engineering complexity of this project made my head hurt, but the results are pretty amazing. Shane of Stuff Made Here managed to design and build a robotic pool cue that can calculate and execute shots. The system even allows Shane to play against opponents over the internet. He holds the robo-cue for… READ THE REST


  • How does a sphere work as a six sided die?



    Why are square cube-shaped dice so popular when sphere and skew dice like the ones above look so much cooler? And according to Action Lab, they are just as fair as your run-of-the-mill boxy dice. Not only does this video inspire me to change up my board games with a variety of dice shapes, but it… READ THE REST


  • This ultra-light headlamp has a 210-degree arc of light and 32 hours of battery



    Bright, hands-free light isn’t easy to come by. Headlamps unnaturally focus their beams in what seems like a laser pointer, and they typically don’t produce enough light. And who wants to strap a big battery pack to their head? The Liteband Activ 520 Wide-Beam LED Headlamp lives by a simple motto: see everything, feel nothing. As… READ THE REST


  • This JBL tower speaker brings professional, theater-quality sound to your home



    It seems like every company is putting out their own speakers these days. From industry heavyweights like Sony and Pioneer to boutique brands you’ve never even heard of, store shelves are packed with speaker options. But a small handful of elite names rise above the general noise of the speaker wars. The educated audio consumer sees… READ THE REST


  • Get started on a UI/UX design career with this training package



    Want to reprint a famous author’s writing on your website? You could get sued. Dropped a clip from a TV show or movie into your YouTube video? You could get sued. Have almost any identifiable song playing in the background of your Facebook video? Heck, you probably won’t get sued… but that’s only because Facebook… READ THE REST

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Miss Cellania