COMPUTER IDENTIFIES ANYTHING VIA 20 QUESTIONS

We all have played many of the classic childhood games such as Simon, Hide and Seek, Red Rover and Connect The Dots. Word games were a particular favorite of mine. I remember playing word games such as Rhymes, Ghost and Hangman. That's probably why I now enjoy doing a good crossword puzzle or word jumble. And while I'm still up for a good game of Ghost whenever I take a long drive with friends to help pass the time, the game that has recently come back in a big way is Twenty Questions. For those of you who don't know the rules, it's simple. You think of any object or thing and the other person can ask up to 20 questions about it. You must answer their questions as truthfully as you can. At the end, they try and guess the item you mentally selected. Whether or not it is correctly named determines who wins the game. There's been a growing popularity for this game and isn't due to a wave of nostalgia. It's because of the computer or to be more specific, it's because of a computer program that plays the game so well that you'd almost swear it was reading your mind.

The game is called 20Q and it's available in two versions. The first offering is available online and can be played via a website. The second way you can play is with a hand-held electronic game. Both versions have been an ongoing development by its creator Robin Burgener since the 1980's. I recently interviewed Burgener on my radio show, Computer America. As we waxed nostalgic about how all of this came about, it turns out that we shared some common interests about Artificial Intelligence and an old computer program called "Animals" that let you create and manage a growing database of different animals. At first, the program knew about only one animal. So when it would guess that animal which was incorrect, it asked you the name of the animal you had selected. Let's say you said "dog" to which it would ask for a question it could ask to identify the animal. I replied with "Does it bark?" So the next time the program ran, it would ask "Does it Bark?" If I said yes, it would ask if it was a dog and it would win. If I said no, then it would again ask for the name of the animal I was thinking and again ask for a question that described it and on and on it would go. The more the game was played, the more animals it would learn along with the identifying questions. After a while, it really became difficult to beat the game. And that was only about animals.

Now take that basic learning premise and apply it not just to animals but to everything in the world and you begin to get a grasp of how amazing Burgener's 20Q program actually is. It tries to guess whatever item you think about and its accuracy is downright spooky. Just play it and you'll know what I mean.

The online version has been learning since the 1980's so it knows a lot of things about everything. This comes in part from the untold numbers of people who play the game and thus continue to contribute to its knowledge base. The handheld version contains much of the database but is a closed system and cannot learn new items. But I've played it at least a hundred times and so far I've only managed to beat it twice. And each time I think this time I have it beat only to have it nail my mentally selected item dead bang. What an amazing little gizmo. Buttons on the little round device offer replies of Yes, No, Sometimes and Unknown. You can customize it by turning the sound effects on or off and control the scrolling speed of the one line text display.

The online version offers additional replies such as Irrelevant, Maybe, Probably, Doubtful, Usually, Depends, Rarely and Partly. It also supports additional languages including Spanish, French, Italian and German. And of course the online version continues to learn and learn and learn.

So what will 20Q become when it "grows up?" Well the practical applications are enormous. Imagine for example, a medical program that asks questions in order to help a doctor make a diagnosis. The fact is that the application of such a technology can be applied to just about any field of expertise.

To play the 20Q game online for free, visit www.20q.net. To purchase the handheld electronic game, visit www.20q.com. 20Q.net Inc. has granted a license to Radica Games to produce, manufacture and distribute products based on the 20Q game. Radica and 20Q.net Inc. have compressed the best of the 20Q.net website into the hand-held electronic "Pocket 20Q". This 20Q pocket version is about the size of a yo-yo and contains a neural-network with approximately a quarter of a million synaptic connections. The handheld game costs around $15 and comes in a variety of colors. Later on in the year Radica plans to release two other versions. The 20Q Challenge ($35) sits on a table and displays its text as glowing blue letters that seem to float and rotate inside a blue dome, and the Deluxe 20Q-Big Screen ($20).

But whatever version you decide to try, just go ahead and play a few games. You'll have lots of fun and you'll also get a glimpse into a future where machines make accurate deductions, draw informed conclusions and dare I say it, maybe even think.