Gizmodo: polaris

Poker Bot Knows When to Hold 'Em, Knows When to Fold 'Em

Elaine Chow — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Looks like the day when we all hang out with robots that smoke cigars, throw back drinks and win all our money in poker is edging closer, now that programmers at the University of Alberta have created a Hold 'Em-playing software that can beat poker professionals. The Polaris software was pitted against Poker pros like Nick Grudzien and Ijay Palansky in six games of limit Texas Hold 'Em—it tied on one, lost two and won three.

Each match consisted of 500 hands, with Polaris receiving the same cards in one room that the professionals received in another room. The duplicate system was used so that luck would be less of a factor and the game could be played as much on skill as possible.

Historically, computers have been better at playing games where all information is already on the board, such as chess. With poker, players have to make judgments based on incomplete information. Getting artificial intelligence to do that well is a big step, since real life problems are generally more like poker than like chess. [MSN Cosmic Log]

HTC Touch Cruise Is So, So Official

Mark Wilson — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:27:12 EST

We told you about the HTC Touch Cruise back when the specs leaked, but HTC has gone and made the GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA phone official, admitting its affiliation and paying child support. Their third phone in the Touch line, this newest version packs a TomTom Navigator 6 GPS that's highly viewable on the 2.8" screen. Plus you get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3MP camera and optional MicroSD expansion. Unfortunately, it looks like Europe only for now. Hit the jump for the full stat smattering and a giant picture that looks so much better than the leaked image.

- Qualcomm 7200 chipset - Built-in GPS receiver - TomTom mapping - 400MHz CPU - TouchFLO UI - 256MB/128 MB ROM/RAM - Wi-Fi connectivity - Bluetooth 2.0 - GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA up to 3.6Mbps - 2.8" QVGA Touch Screen - FM Radio - Micro SD memory card - Windows Mobile 6.0 - HTC Home screen

[product via pocket-lint]

HTC Polaris Spotted

Mark Wilson — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:38:40 EDT

HTC gear always seems to leak a bit early, and here is what appears to be the first shot of the WM6 Pro HTC Polaris (sitting in front of the HTC Shift). We'd seen a CG mockup before along with what we're still assuming to be the smartphone's specs: HSDPA\EDGE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS w/compass, 3MP camera, MicroSD and, as the cherry on top, an FM radio baby!

What we don't yet realize is the the Polaris only functions when sprawled across the Shift's keyboard at that precise angle. Darn. [theunwired via bgr]

Unabomber Beats Polaris in World's First Man v Machine Poker Game

AddyDugdale — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:30:45 EDT

It was a hard-fought game, but man just edged it over machine in what was billed as the "First Man-Machine Poker Championship." Phil Laak, also known as the Unabomber, and Ali Eslani battled it out against Polaris, a software program, for a purse of $50,000. Click for ~~a closer view~~ all the details.

The match took place in a Vancouver hotel, at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's annual meeting. Although not the world's best poker players, Laak and Eslani were chosen because UA's brainboxes felt that their computer know-how would make them more effective opponents against Polaris, which was written by a bunch of AI researchers from the University of Alberta.

Playing Texas Hold 'Em, each team was put in separate rooms, and dealt identical hands, eliminating one of the most important aspects of poker - the tell - when shiftiness and facial tics can give the game away.

After a first-round draw, the humans were comprehensively beaten in the second round, and it was not until the third round, on the following day, when the AI team made a strategic cock-up, choosing a different version of the program that was supposed to add a level of adaptability and "learning."

It cost them the match. The humans came right back at Polaris, winning the final two rounds. Both men said that the computer, which won a pot of $2,400 in the final round when it pitted a royal flush against Eslami's three-of-a-kind, was the hardest opponent they had ever had to play against.

Unlike chess, poker is a harder game to write software for, because of the the unknown element involved in the hidden cards. Programmers also need to factor in the element of bluffing, which means catering for lots of different strategies and algorithms.

Although Polaris came out the loser this time, it is generally thought that it won't be long before the machines will be besting men at poker. One thing that will remain beyond computers, however, is the ability is get 'em off as charmingly as we do in the strip version of the game. [New York Times]

HTC's Roadmap Shows Sliders, Smartphones, and Fingerprint Recognition

Jason Chen — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:00:03 EDT

CTI Miami got their hands on HTC's latest roadmap for their upcoming phones. Among them are the Kaiser, which is along the same lines as the Sprint Mogul (GSM), and the Vogue, which is like the HTC Touch. Some of the more interesting ones are the Nike, which is a WM6 Professional (that's the touchscreen one) that slides up to reveal a regular keypad; the Iris, which is a CDMA EV-DO Rev. A phone that looks like the T-Mobile Dash; the Polaris, which looks like an update to the GPS-enabled Artemis, and the Sedna, which actually has a fingerprint reader and both CDMA and GSM.

The Shangri-La, which is the HTC Shift, is also listed, and sports both CDMA and EDGE and has a 800MHz processor, 30/40 GB hard drive, VGA camera for video calls and fingerprint recognition. We're looking forward to all of these.

– Jason Chen

HTC phones galore [CTI Miami via Boy Genius Report]