Stuff Made Here - 2021-02-16
Get a Free 32GB Flash Drive and 32GB Micro SD Card: https://micro.center/dbfba Check out the Micro Center Custom PC Builder: https://micro.center/4879a Join the Micro Center Community: https://micro.center/15dd5 Get merch + support the channel: https://stuffmadehere.shop/ Please consider supporting these projects through my patreon: http://patreon.com/stuffmadehere I use a glowforge pro for rapid prototyping and it's great. You can $500 off a Glowforge pro here: http://glowforge.com/stuffmadehere I built this with the new Tormach 1300 PL, check it out: https://tormach.com/machines/plasma-tables.html An automatic pool playing robot - how hard could it be? Turns out harder than I thought. It took me quite a while to work through all the difficulties of this project but when it all finally came together is so worth it. To my surprise the most interesting aspect of this project is using the cue to play real games of pool over the internet. Let me know if you think twitch plays billiards would be worthwhile...
I have no problem admitting this guy is much smarter than I.
That implies that you have problems with admitting that someone else is smarter than you. That's weird. If they're smarter, not admitting it won't make them dumber. It'll definitely make you look stupid though.
@kiwi who are you replying to? Lol
@Winston Smith So by your logic, steroids make you more intelligent?
Same 😂
As a legal professional in a large tech company I work with many engineers. You guys are a different breed. Tons of admiration.
You guys? This is just one guy in a basement
@Ray Chen Hes talking about engineers in general
He might be smart yet horrible in the art of seduction.
@Wrong Frequency come on dude
@ShyGuy3101 it’s possible Rey Chen is an engineer. They can be socially awkward & often cannot differentiate literal & figurative language. A good friend of mine is an engineer & I call him Literal Larry! His actual name is Paul.
As an engineer, your video simply compile the whole engineering degree in 20 minutes XD
Honestly, it's many engineering disciplines.
the real challenge is to implement them in a project I guess
I love how he goes to make one thing and comes out with multiple other things. He sets out to make an aimbot pool stick, and gets a rip off hologram aim assist pool table, an anti aimbot pool stick/mode, and an online casino version of pool XD
Would be so cool if there were two tables built separate from each other. You could take it a step farther than online pool: make your shot at table 1 with your normal stick, table 2 robot stick replicates it. Then your opponent uses their normal cue on table 2 and your robot stick replicates it, etc.
The challenge for the robot would not be winning the game, it would be accurately analyzing and replicating a human shot to achieve an identical ball placement.
Or you could play against the AI with varying levels of difficulty.
The next level for this has to be an Auto Robot that can move around the table independently and position the cue where it needs to be for the optimum shot. Take the human out of the equation altogether, just an idea......
I love how he casually invented three or four groundbreaking things.. RESPECT!
Shane, you are incredibly smart and yet you walk us thru the creative process in terms that most of us can understand. Fascinating and satisfying. Subscribed!
I would love to see a more technical video of you going through the code and the processes you used in order to code this algorithm. I want to build a similar project of identifying cups and locations for another robot to move them. I am an engineering college student at Alabama and I would absolutely love to learn more about your coding and how you learned to code so well.
Man your concept of "easy" is slightly different from most other people 😅 fantastic build, I really enjoyed watching ☺️
Hey Alex!
"It's easy. Just use linear algebra!"
If you get confused then yes it’s “easy” lol
My respect for mechatronics has increased significantly now. Amazing. Proud to be a engineer.
As a somewhat decent pool player it was very interesting to watch this. I was wondering how certain basic pool principles (i.e. deflection caused by sidespin, spin transfer etc.) were taken into consideration, but only focusing on center ball hits took care of most of that. The cue seemed to hit very well through the cue ball, which makes it go straight reliably.
"I want to be unencumbered.", as he drags the cables across the table. Seriously though, the engineering that went into it is amazing. I, being a (mediocre) pool player, learned a good deal from this.
"This is where ball spin becomes useful and I pretty much ignored it" LOLOL This was such a great video. I am an avid pool shooter and was fascinated! You were correct to ignore english and side spin. Even draw and follow shots. That would change so many things from the ground up...
“This is probably the most complex project that I’ve ever done” seems like he says this every video. That’s probably why they’re so great.
I litterally read this comment as he was saying it.... He read your comment to me.
He Will eventually solve world hunger, I swear da
@Beef4Dinner22 exactly. I would love to see more of what he is doing, I know I could learn a ton just by watching him work.
I was going to say the same thing! Seems like he says it every time. Then I watched the video and I think this time I 100% agree with him.
Man I wish I could be like you some day to be able to combine programming, physics, engineering and sheer brain power to make something so cool, I'm learning coding right now, but I so wanna get to a level like you, it looks so appealing.
Keep making these awesome vids, what you make is insane!!!
“If your kid wins, do you win?”
“Yes.”
“Then I won.”
“The robot is not your kid, we’ve talked about this.”
Oh gosh xD
"Getting this done is as hard as labor! So hard!"
You may have just invented the best pool training system that bars and pool halls would buy. All you need is the software, the camera, and the projector. This is awesome!
This is like, one of the most complex diy stuff I have ever seen, well done!
we dont deserve the amount of effort this man puts into his videos
@Tommy2cats and this guy does EVERYTHING himself.
@2MJZ omg I’m weak 😭🤣🤣
@ManOpeace that was very cheesy
This was really cool, Shane! Thank you for inspiring me to keep improving as a developer.
Amazing engineering skills and so true how many problems arise! I experience this all the time at work. Great video, great skills, great story!
I had envisioned an arm fastened to the ceiling joists that would take the shot without you having to hold the cue, but this way is probably not just cheaper and easier, but more fun as well.
Absolutely amazing the work and preservice you did to achieve everything. Great job on the video as well.
As an engineer I am amazed by how many disciplines this spans. You truly are doing work that a company would take months to do.
That's why this dude is a one person company xD
ikr, if he designed a flying car I would be the first to test drive it
@Hisoka Amorou hahahahaha "cheap" "diy" "real products"
Months because besides the actually necessary engineering, there will be meetings upon meetings upon meetings that are just rehashes of what had already been decides and/or is obvious to anyone actually producing anything (besides meeting reports and Gantt charts). And often too, even the people actually producing the product will be coasting or goofing off. You just don't work as hard when it's someone else's project.
"The robot is not your kid, we talked about this." Hilarious.
Hey, awesome! I've played pool for most of my life (40+ years). I look forward to seeing you apply english, top and draw. Just make sure you shape and roughern the tip of the cue (should be approximately the radius of a nickel). Also, be sure to chalk before your robot attempts to apply any of that spin; otherwise, you'll miscue.
Although I know how to clear a table, there's NO WAY I could come up with a robot to do what you did - nice!!!!
As a pool player wanna see them updates for cue ball play
Great video and even better engineering !!!
Love your work Shane ❤️
I'm stunned, amazed, and knocked out cold by this video! Your intelligence and mastery of engineering and technology my friend, is the equivalent of a heavyweight boxer, a Jack Johnson, Muhmmed Ali, or Mike Tyson in their prime!
This is the first video of yours that I have seen, but you definitely earned a like and subscribe from me! I have shopped at Mircocenter since around the late 1980's I think, when they first opened a store near Atlanta. I'll use your links from now on when I shop there.
That was 42 minutes 36 seconds of my life well spent (I watched it twice)
I'm just waiting for that one guy to challenge your math
@Great Lakes Logger
😂
Honestly if this were a tv show it would’ve been two episodes and in the end they would’ve failed.
It’s actually pretty cool he crammed this project into a 22min video.
He learned math in only two watchings of this video! (21:18 x 2) Absolutely astonishing!
As a legal professional in a large tech company I work with many engineers. You guys are a different breed. Tons of admiration.
Absolutely astounded by your engineering skills.
Amazing mix of engineering, programming and tons of patience! Also enough experience with loosing
You have to create a teacher table, with the same algorithms that will project on the table where your stick needs to be to hit the ball.
So actually you do everything but, it points where you have to hit the other ball.
If a team of twenty people did this, I would be impressed. But the fact that you could figure out all these different aspects of this complex problem by yourself is just crazy. You are a genius!
@Mantis Toboggan So.. What you are saying is that 9 women can deliver baby in one month. :) Not everything can be parralelized. The communication overhead is huge. The size of the project usually depends not on the actual size of problem, but on how many people you will get to do it. In this particular case 2 people is maximum probably before implementation will slow down.
@Dżarek haha I love that saying because it’s my company’s approach to every project and it’s always “late” 🙄 but honestly this could easily be parallelized for most of it and yeah I do think a 4-5 person team that can work well together would probably be the most efficient, so each person can break off each part and focus/test it (sw, ee, me, oe, and maybe an architect/integration engineer). Because if everyone knew at the start to design a projection system that also has a camera, the mechanical device he makes for the end and how they will control it (microcontroller) this project could definitely be broken into smaller sub modules and would likely be faster - but that preplanning is crucial and why an architect might help accelerate it. It seems like he does that stuff fast but when he says he spends weeks just doing the debug part, that’s where more people drastically decrease the time (plus planning the testing of each part would’ve caught this). That’s a ton of work for one person and I think it’s unrealistic to think one person can match the output of many more unless it is a super simple project (which this really isn’t). It’s not rocket science but it’s also a lot of just elbow grease to grind through all the work/man-hours to make this
@Jevon Mao yes... thats what Im saying. "engineering" already entails everything else he listed. If I say im a mathematician, you wouldnt know if I know anything about chemistry or computers, but if I say im an engineer, then its a given that i understand physics to an extent etc.
@Jevon Mao I think he just wanted to say that you need all that other stuff to solve engineering problems and it is sort of implied when you speak of engineering, that you have to do all this other stuff. However I had to list those to make the point that it is a broad variety of knowledge that you need.
@Jason Quigley Ok I don't have an engineering degree, so I can't tell. Maybe this is all typical stuff that you learn as an engineer. Being a mathematician, this is hard to imagine for me. My math education was more like diving deep into a few topics and just mathematics and a little bit of physics. Nothing else. But engineering is naturally an interdisciplinary subject I guess, so with that in mind, it makes sense what you say.
This guy is doing what several specialized team of software and hardware engineers would be doing.
We can all agree that he never disappoints us with his content
Great build.
While adding that forward-looking "chess engine", maybe include one that takes into account combination shots, maybe even trick shots?
Much respect for you buddy. Love watching this stuff.
I'm a mechanical engineer and I think I'm pretty good at figuring out stuff like this. You are light years ahead of me. I can follow what you are doing, but if I had to do it all myself I would be completely overwhelmed even with all the concepts thrown at my feet. You are a complete genius. You must be in the top 0.001% of people to do things like this. It's an honor just to watch.
@Agustin Repetto if you're argument is that people can be as smart or smarter than he is, sure. Everyone has potential to develop their skills and intellectual enrichment is most often related to how hard someone works to achieve such.
But the claim was that he is just a cut above the rest at was his abilities allow him to do currently. Does someone else have the potential to do similar things? Sure. But nobody else is currently doing things to this scale on their own, or else we would see it.
Totally. I’m also a mechanical engineer with another year of CS on top of that and this dude is brilliant. As well as brilliant he has the determination to beat these problems to death until he solves each of the actual solutions until it’s refined to a working model. Props man!
Im dumb.
@OTOPHILA squadsquadsquadsquadsquad
@Agustin Repetto just because alot more people are capable of figuring it out if they studied doesn't mean you get to include them in saying they are just as smart. If you told everyone to design what he just did then I guarentee you only .001% would of done it.
I have an idea for this. What if you put a second camera on the side of the table to track the vertical alignment of the tip? Then you could have more control over topspin and backspin. In theory it would be easier to program than the shot alignment algorithm.
Hats off to you and your dedication..... truely inspired. Love from Nepal <3
Man, you're my tech making stuff idol dude now! Just blows me away.
This guy is like “it’s pretty simple” and then says some genius stuff that would take me another life time to figure out haha. Great content. I have subscribed haha
His persistence, not just his intellect is what makes him extremely talented, the dude does not seem to give up ever.
Hey to be honest, we only see those videos of his where he succeeds. We don't see his "failures".
@Karl with a K haha what are you like 17
@Karl with a K the dood even spent 10 hours all nighter to try to use usb on a broken chip instead of buying a new one, stating it was a mistake to do that.
Thus he learned from his compulsive mistake to not quit.
Ok prom boy
@Johann smith I believe you are trying to reference a previous video where he tried to avoid writing a USB driver but then did and it worked perfectly. Fact is, winners win and losers try to justify losing by saying you should "give up" (your words).
it amazes me how incredibly smart this man is... it really blows my mind🤯
At first i kinda thought this guy was just going to be a big tool. But he has really impressed me and i feel like he deserves the attention hes getting. Keep it up man youve slready taught me a lot!
I would love to play this with friends! Lol. Awesome idea especially when you may be far away from the friends that you used to play Pool with all the time and have not been able to for a long time due to life. Awesome game and ingenuity!
The amount of effort this takes both for creating the stick and the video is unimaginable...few people will actually step back and consider it...well done you!
SmarterEveryDay - 2021-02-16
Meat servo cheats...
(By the way you should totally support Shane on Patreon, like I do: https://www.patreon.com/stuffmadehere/ )
Joseph Kasler - 2022-02-22
Are you located in ohio too
Joseph Kasler - 2022-02-22
Are you located in ohio too
Swaraj Tilekar - 2022-03-01
Ok
Peter Panda - 2022-03-21
No I'm not.