20q - Pocket Mind Reader

By Staff

Tuesday, February 12, 2008, 17:10

You might haven't ever heard about such a gadget that reads your mind. But I am sure, you would have watched any of the TV shows that does the similar job, reading minds with a set of questions. 20Q is a game that can tell what you are thinking in 20 questions or less, and which provides hours of fun as you try to stump the machine.

The online network that hosts one version of the game is immense, with each game played adding to the sophistication of the AI that guesses. The hand-held version doesn't, unfortunately, get these frequent updates, but it does provide hours of stimulating fun as you try to stump the pocket sized device with new items to guess.

Answer honestly, and you will find that the 20 questions hand-held game guesses what you've got on your mind more times than not. This machine is not un-stumpable, but there are few items, it seems, that are not hidden away in that computer brain just waiting to be guessed.

The game was created by Robin Burgener, who started work on the project in 1988. The game works like the human brain, forming a neural network that is built from connections like our synapses, helping the game determine what to ask next and what to guess at the end. Play for yourself and see how a string of seemingly unrelated questions can come together in a way that allows the game to guess what was on your mind.

You can take it just about anywhere, simply slipping it into your pocket and pulling it out whenever you are ready for a new round. The game can usually guess what's on your mind in 20 minutes or so, leaving you baffled and determined to stump it. This game is a great one for people of all ages. It provides stimulating fun to adults and children alike.

Robin Burgener, the inventor of 20q started working on 20Q in 1988, with the game running on a 5/14 inch floppy disk. Now 20q is online and over 10,000 games are played each day - increasing the sophistication of the 20q network on a daily basis. The artificial intelligence behind the game is a neural-network, similar to a human brain. A human brain has about one hundred trillion synaptic connections. The 20q.net online version currently has about ten million, and the pocket version has about two hundred and fifty thousand. The game uses the neural-network to choose the next question as well as deciding what to guess.

How to play the game? It's rather simple. Just think of an object like an animal, vegetable, mineral or anything else, and then 20q will ask you a series of questions through it's LED display. You simply answer yes, no, sometimes, or 'unknown' using the appropriate buttons on 20q for each question. Then your 20q will attempt to guess your object after the 20th question. If it guesses correctly, 20q wins! If it misses it will attempt 5 more questions and will then make another guess. If it misses again then you've officially stumped the pocket 20q and it will courageously admit defeat. But 20q is much smarter than you realize.