After the robotic uprising, all sports will be played by robots, reducing humans to mere spectators of our own demise. And ready to compete in the robotic PGA is Golfi, a robot designed to be able to sink putts with the very best of them. The very best of them being me at miniature golf, just to be clear. You should see me putt right between those windmill blades!
Golfi uses a Microsoft Kinect 3D camera to create a depth map of the putting surface, then uses its 3,000 putt neural network training database to make a shot based on a physics model. It takes additional factors into consideration before swinging the club as well, including “the rolling resistance of the turf, weight of the ball, and its starting velocity.” It probably does not take into consideration me rushing the green and kicking the ball into the rough yelling, “Robots suck!”
Well, at least it’s can’t drive or chip balls yet; at least there’s that. Also, I would love to see this thing try to maneuver itself into a sand trap without falling over and rendering itself incapacitated in the sand. Now that’s something I would tune in to watch on television.
[via TechEBlog]
