Robin Burgener, the inventor of the hugely popular 20Q toy and artificial intelligence, has been invited to speak to many of North America's top engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre. The Canadian inventor's revolutionary technology and its potential applications to NASA's future efforts will be the hot topic at the Maryland-based Space Centre on May 22nd. Discussions on Artificial Intelligence, spacecraft, and customer service will illustrate the versatility of the artificial intelligence engine that drives Burgener's 20Q and it's relevance to the colloquium of leading thinkers and technologists.
NASA's invitation comes on the heels of a recent surge of popularity for the Canadian-based company. In addition to being heralded in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired Magazine and Time Magazine, 20Q recently won the Electronic Toy of the Year Award at the Toy Industry Association ‘Oscars.' The critically acclaimed invention has also won a long list of awards including an Oppenheim Platinum Toy Award, the Canadian Toy Testing Council’s Toy of the Year Award, the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, and the Great American Toy Test Fabulous 14 List. Licensed to Radica Games, (NASDAQ:RADA) Ltd., 20Q has sold millions of units world-wide since its release.
What is 20Q? 20Q is an AI engine, a website, a company and a phenomenon that speaks for itself online at www.20q.net. The game lets players think of an animal, vegetable, mineral, or other item and can guess what they are thinking in twenty questions or less. Each time the online game is played it "learns" a little more. After more than 36 million games played, 20Q has evolved from an experiment in artificial intelligence into a software development firm that licenses products built on the capabilities of the 20Q A.I. Mr. Burgener has been nurturing the technology since 1988.
The future looks promising for the evolving 20Q company, located in Ottawa, Canada. The game has been translated into 14 languages, and will soon be released in specialty Music, Sports, and Movie/TV versions. In the United States, the mobile phone version is available to Verizon and Sprint customers through I-play. Long-term plans will see the 20Q technology applied in medical devices, search engines, help desks and large e-commerce websites.