Hydrogel Play Ping Pong. Scientists have just made “non-living things” that can play and improve their performance. Over time
A new study published in the journal Cell Report Physical Science reveals how to make a “fever-reducing patch” material that is like a soft, water-rich hydrogel. Not only can you play the video game “Pong” or “Ping Pong.” But you can still improve your gaming performance by learning with a little time.
Pong is a video game first released in 1972 by Atari that quickly gained popularity and is considered one of the most influential games of all time. The game involves two players and a dotted “ball” that bounces between them, similar to the real-world game of ping pong.
Although the game has been around for over 50 years, many scientists still use it as a useful benchmark for training not only AI and neural networks, but also “biological intelligence” or organic intelligence (OI), which is also a biological computer made of human cells.
These OI systems grow from stem cells that develop into a basic “brain” and could be a promising alternative to traditional devices. However, both AI and OI are currently resource-intensive and cost-intensive industries. For this reason, some scientists are looking for new approaches to reduce the resulting costs.
“Ionic hydrogels can create the same memory mechanisms as more complex neural networks. We’ve shown that hydrogels can not only play ping-pong, but also get better over time,” said Vincent Strong, a robotics engineer at the University of Reading in the UK.
A research team led by biomedical engineering professor Yoshikatsu Hayashi grafted blocks of a non-living but electrically active material called Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) hydrogel onto a computer simulation of the video game Pong using a special multi-electrode array from OI.
When a small amount of electric current is received, the BZ hydrogel will be ionized, causing the hydrogel water molecules to vibrate and swell. The overall shape of the hydrogel sheet changes in this process, but its “shrinkage” occurs at a much slower rate than when it initially expanded. This means that each step affects the next step.
“It’s like a memory,” Strong said. “The continuous arrangement of ions within the hydrogel is based on previous arrangements. This continues up until the time it was first created, and there is a relatively uniform distribution of ions.”
Put simply, these hydrogel sheets receive different amounts of electrical current each time. This causes different shapes that will affect the “response” to the external environment. In this context, it's the video game Pong.
When electricity stimulates a certain point, the hydrogel “swells” at that point and triggers a sensor that determines the position of the “racket” in the game, so the racket can change its position. But what’s surprising is that when the research team applied electrical stimulation to inform the gel of the random positions of the balls, they measured the flow of ions. They also kept a record of how long each shot took. They found that it took just 20 minutes to reach the highest level of table tennis.
“The basic principle in both neurons and hydrogels is that the movement and distribution of ions can serve as a memory function that can be linked to the sensory-motor circuits in Pong’s world,” explains Professor Hayashi. “Ions move inside the cell while they move outside it in the gel.”
While Strong also explained that “over time as the ball moves, the gel accumulates a memory of all the movements. The ping pong paddle then moves to accommodate that ball within the simulated environment, and the ions move in such a way that they create a memory map of all their movements over time. And that memory leads to better performance.”
However, although the hydrogel sheet was said to be able to improve a table tennis game to peak level in 20 minutes, the hydrogel was unable to beat its computer opponent. Accuracy could only be increased to a maximum of about 10%.
However, the research is unique because these memories are evidence of automatic abilities. These subjects were not designed for specific practice. However, this finding does not imply the presence of intentional feelings or behaviors.
Professor Hayashi suggests that hydrogels could be developed into other forms of “artificial intelligence” that could be used to create simpler algorithmic systems. At the very least, it opens new doors to explore the process of basic memory formation within cells.
“We have shown that memories are formed spontaneously within the hydrogels,” Strong said. “But the next step is to see if we can clearly demonstrate that learning is actually happening.”
Researched and edited by Witit Borompichaichartkul
Shadow Gate / Wikimedia Commons
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