The computer probably would not have been as effective if it had to get the questions by having a camera pan to the correct monitor, zoom in, and then do an OCR to interpret the questions.
The questions are always printed in the same font. Compared to the amount of processing power needed to answer them, the amount needed to do the OCR would be minimal.
Another “part of the game” is that you normally have to play at the studio in Los Angeles. The computer (which was based in New York) would have had to deal with latency problems if the game had been played in the normal location.
The questions are always printed in the same font. Compared to the amount of processing power needed to answer them, the amount needed to do the OCR would be minimal.
I don’t think it’s just a matter of OCR—it seems that the computer would have to first focus in on the correct area of the game board where the clue is being displayed. I’m not sure how quickly and efficiently that could have been done.
That’s about 60 msec latency each way — not much.
As far as I know, a fast human can react in about 100 milliseconds. So 60 milliseconds each way would arguably have put the computer in the same ballpark as humans.
The questions are always printed in the same font. Compared to the amount of processing power needed to answer them, the amount needed to do the OCR would be minimal.
That’s about 60 msec latency each way — not much.
I don’t think it’s just a matter of OCR—it seems that the computer would have to first focus in on the correct area of the game board where the clue is being displayed. I’m not sure how quickly and efficiently that could have been done.
As far as I know, a fast human can react in about 100 milliseconds. So 60 milliseconds each way would arguably have put the computer in the same ballpark as humans.