Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Shredder Challenge - Puzzle 2 done! Onto Puzzle 3


Puzzle 2 is now done! Puzzle 3 is a drawing (not text).

As we get to more complicated puzzles, it's clear that loading, rendering, and UI limitations will become a bigger and bigger issue. My colleague, Dan Maynes-Aminzade ("monzy" for short) is doing his best to figure out ways to handle that. There are a lot of not-ideal solutions.

It's also clear that more computer aided matching will be necessary to maintain progress. Here are zip files for the pieces of problem 4 and problem 5, if you want to try your hand at analyzing them directly.

Puzzle 4 pieces
Puzzle 5 pieces

If you come up with good ideas that work, post them in the comments.
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5 comments:

  1. Daniel SmithNovember 22, 2011 at 5:37 PM

    For those skipping ahead to work on puzzle 4, the message appears to be written in a stylized cursive handwriting using black ink. However, there is a little bit of blue ink - probably circling a word as in puzzle #2. Many of these blue ink pieces have been grouped together on the right side of the puzzle.

    Also, my own lag issues are now so great, I can't really participate anymore. Geographically, I hail from North Carolina (it is now 8:30 EST) so distance may be a factor in serving the site.

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  2. David AndersenNovember 22, 2011 at 6:49 PM

    One wonders for puzzles 4 and 5 if an interface to quickly allow people to categorize chads might help - likely letter fragments, orientation, no letters, no lines, horizontal red lines, etc. Just for the first pass, and potentially to acquire metadata that would facilitate automated assembly.

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  3. Keith BakerNovember 23, 2011 at 6:36 AM

    Has puzzle 0 been completed?

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  4. JosephNovember 23, 2011 at 12:15 PM

    So puzzle 3 looks like it's on graph paper. The shredder leaves a diagonal pattern that should probably all point the same direction. And it would seem that every other shred might be more or less evenly aligned with the in-between shred being offset by about 3/4ths of a graph-paper block.

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  5. Oliver LewisNovember 24, 2011 at 2:01 AM

    Could you put an optional grid on the canvas, with the same spacing as on the pieces? This would highlight the importance of these grid lines and help line up the pieces.

    A chat window would be nice too, for when multiple people are collaborating.

    ReplyDelete