Jeopardy! whiz Ken Jennings may have lost to a computer, but German table tennis champ Timo Boll tried to make sure everyone knows that man can still take down machine.
The German robotics manufacturing company KUKA posted an ad to YouTube this week showing Boll and the company’s 114-pound Agilus robot arm staging an epic — really, ridiculous — game of table tennis. Boll, who is currently ranked 8th in the world, “won” after falling behind early in the match.
Thanks to Boll’s victory, the tagline for the robot is: Not the best in table tennis. But probably the best in robotics.
“I’m definitely happy to play against the robot,” Boll said in an interview for a behind the scenes look at the ad. “What makes a good table tennis player is speed, agility, maneuverability, reaction. Those are actually attributes that a modern industrial robot is supposed to have and needs to have these days, and so there are a lot of things we have in common.”
“KUKA also stands for German quality,” Boll continued, “and as an athlete I also try to convey that somewhere along the lines.”
Boll also commented on his amazement with just how fast and precise robots are becoming these days. But Boll wasn’t the only one in shock.
“The speed at which the two have been going at each other has been absolutely fascinating,” Director Matthias Zentner said, adding that the speeds are so intense, it’s almost impossible to follow with a camera. “It’s like in a boxing match, you have two people standing face to face and you don’t know where the punch is going to land.”
You can watch both the ad and the behind the scenes clip below — and be amazed with the superhuman speed that the two opponents show.
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(h/t Mashable)
