[Sigia-l] 20questions--a little bit OT, but not entirely

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Samantha Bailey
>  
> Has anyone come across this new toy that is currently popular? 

Saw that in news about how hot a toy it was. Stores could not keep it
on shelf.


> It's called 20q and it's an AI handheld that guesses the object
> you're thinking of in 20 questions.

Basically, it asks users to classify various facets of what they have
in mind. Which facets get mentioned depends on the answers to
preceding questions.


> What I found most interesting is that on the results page it lists
> *similar* objects

They are objects with the same classification in the mentioned facets
(questions). If the 20q site was a medical diagnostic expert system,
it would have mentioned other illnesses sharing the same set of
symptoms, i.e. questions asked.


> --which leads to fascinating categorization (esp in the "other" and
> "unknown" groupings (as opposed to animal, vegetable, mineral).

Not sure of what you see as fascinating. "Other" is for things
classified in a category other than animal, vegetable, or mineral.
"Unknown" is for things users don't know how to classify.


Boniface