After an anxious month's wait, we finally get to see the ultimate showdown of man vs. machine on the only battleground that matters—table tennis. The results? Humans: 1, KUKA robot: 0. Our future mechanical overlords still have quite a ways go.
Put on by KUKA Robot Group to show off what its flagship machine can do, the match shows pro German table tennis player Timo Boll going head to head with the KUKA KR AGILUS. And because it's so incredible to see a robot and human so equally matched in agility and speed, it seems almost bizarre that the resulting video doesn't let the duel speak for itself.
Still, although the editing makes it hard to judge the validity of the video, assuming what we see is actually what went down, the tactical prowess of robots is going in some pretty amazing directions. You can check out the making of video below, but be forewarned: Same, overdone production remains.
[Digg]