Automatic pool cue youtube video

iusedtoberich

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member

This is probably my favorite youtube channel. The guy is wicked smart, and comes up with all kinds of neat stuff. A robot that cuts hair, a moving basketball hoop so you can't miss, and now an automatic pool cue. I'm watching it now myself for the first time, it was just released today. Enjoy!
 
Very cool! Thanks for sharing it. I could just about feel his pain during all the troubleshooting. Not unlike when something goes haywire with my game and I have to work through a bunch of stuff to get it sorted out again.
 
I just finished watching it. Wow, he did a great job! Cornerman, Bob J, Dr Dave, you guys have to see this. Its obvious he's a banger, but wow he did good.
 
I thought the overhead projector showing required cue ball path was brilliant and could be a great instruction aid, especially for aiming. It would probably not take much work to make this aspect of the project fully operational, and potentially commercial.
 
Well, he is clearly smart, and he accomplished an amazing amount for a sole experimenter, but....

There are a bunch of things he failed to do. The first is his homework. He has no idea about Virtual Pool or Shooter's Pool. There are also a bunch of previous pool-playing robots and many have videos online. His "robot" is not nearly as complete as what has already been done.

His mechanism is at the APA 3 level of stroke -- let's see him draw the cue ball to the other end of the table. I doubt that his current mechanism is capable of it. If he actually wants to play position -- which he seems to be largely unaware of -- he needs to throw away what he has now.

The computer-opponent AI in Virtual Pool already has game strategy built in.

The table comes with fiducials. I think all of you have seen them and some of you have even used them. If he had two cameras somewhat offset, he would have seen immediately that his camera distortion correction algorithm was broken. Also, the vision system needs to be 3D because the tops of the balls are not at the same level as the fiducials or the cloth. It seems to be 2D.

Neither he nor anyone he played with can play a lick, like draw the ball to the other end of the table. He has zero expertise at the game and he seems not to have searched it out, as in find someone who can play.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Well, he is clearly smart, and he accomplished an amazing amount for a sole experimenter, but....

There are a bunch of things he failed to do. The first is his homework. He has no idea about Virtual Pool or Shooter's Pool. There are also a bunch of previous pool-playing robots and many have videos online. His "robot" is not nearly as complete as what has already been done.

His mechanism is at the APA 3 level of stroke -- let's see him draw the cue ball to the other end of the table. I doubt that his current mechanism is capable of it. If he actually wants to play position -- which he seems to be largely unaware of -- he needs to throw away what he has now.

The computer-opponent AI in Virtual Pool already has game strategy built in.

The table comes with fiducials. I think all of you have seen them and some of you have even used them. If he had two cameras somewhat offset, he would have seen immediately that his camera distortion correction algorithm was broken. Also, the vision system needs to be 3D because the tops of the balls are not at the same level as the fiducials or the cloth. It seems to be 2D.

Neither he nor anyone he played with can play a lick, like draw the ball to the other end of the table. He has zero expertise at the game and he seems not to have searched it out, as in find someone who can play.
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Pretty sure this is posted to be a fun/funny thing to overlook and get a kick out of... by no means did I get the feeling that the OP or the inventor have had some sort of groundbreaking invention that would cure all pool ails... just to enjoy the entertainment of it, well that's how I looked at it anyway (y)
 
8cree said:
Pretty sure this is posted to be a fun/funny thing to overlook and get a kick out of... by no means did I get the feeling that the OP or the inventor have had some sort of groundbreaking invention that would cure all pool ails... just to enjoy the entertainment of it, well that's how I looked at it anyway (y)
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Absolutely. His job is to make entertaining videos. That's how he makes his living with two million subscribers and commercial sponsors. For me it was a good balance between details and action shots. It's just that I prefer a little more expertise.
 
If you look at his other videos, like the golf club, basketball hoop, and baseball bat, the whole point is that he is NOT an expert.

That video is destined for 25M views, which may dwarf the sum total of all the other pool videos on you tube. Some of those who watch it, might even try the game. Take it lightly, as that is how it was intended.
 
I think the fact he got as far as he did without knowing how to hold a cue is pretty strong. Agree his robot would probably crumble at the speed needed for even a long stop shot. Idk that the other robots on YouTube over the years were more advanced though. At least the mechanical portion of the shooting and alignment mechanism did not seem to be.

One thing common to all the robots I’ve seen is their creators could not hold a stick.
 
I also think, but not certain, this guy has a real dayjob and did this robot in a few months of his evening hours. He releases a similarly complex video about once every few months.
Unless the whole thing is a setup of some sort and he has a big team working on everything full time and this is all their day jobs. Who knows:)
 
Here is a previous video from a group that had a general purpose robot available. With that start, they did the project in a week. They also had the advantage of an "open source pool physics library" which they reference. The robot has a pretty weak stroke.

 
And here is a robot that is disgustingly proud of the simple shots it makes. I hope our future robot masters are more humble.

 
iusedtoberich said:
I also think, but not certain, this guy has a real dayjob and did this robot in a few months of his evening hours. He releases a similarly complex video about once every few months.
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Yes, I think you're right. I had heard of him multiple times before, so I thought he was more active. His total number of views for all his videos is only 86M which is nice but not a living wage. He does also have sponsors and a patreon page.
 
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