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Playing Quantum

Project description

Purpose-driven video games could transform gaming into quantum research breakthroughs

The global gaming phenomenon has captured the attention and cognitive effort of millions of people, creating a virtual realm with many opportunities. The games industry has now focused on channelling human brainpower for problem-solving through purpose-driven video games. Thanks to human intuition and better visual-processing capabilities, players can tackle complex research problems through games that traditional computers struggle to solve. The EU-funded QPlay project aims to create massively collaborative online games that solve quantum technology research tasks through hybrid human-computer interaction, enhanced by machine learning algorithms. To realise its vision, QPlay needs to build unconventional partnerships across academia, game development and quantum physics.

Objective

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are opting out of reality for larger and larger chunks of time to play video games. This “mass esodus” to game spaces is creating a massive virtual silo of cognitive effort and collective attention lavished on game world instead of real world. Game industry is more and more interested in channeling this enormous amount of human brainpower by designing games with a purpose.
Several successful examples show that it is indeed possible to develop video games in which people solve computationally intractable research problems as a side effect of playing. Humans are better than computers at performing certain tasks because of their intuition and superior visual processing. Human intuition has been proven useful, for example, in exploring the complex configuration landscape typical of quantum optimal control theory.
The identification of optimally controlled quantum probes is an ideal candidate for gamification. QPlay’s vision is the production and launch of massively-collaborative online video games solving research tasks in quantum technologies by means of hybrid human-computer interaction, complemented with machine learning algorithms.
To achieve this vision, we need to build hybrid industries and unconventional partnerships, involving academia, so that game researchers, designers and developers can work with quantum physicists, machine learning experts, and educators to harness the power of games for research. QPlay aims at i) exploring the feasibility of an exploitation path by coordinating and supporting the assembling of the right knowledge, skills and resources, ii) the identification of strategic partners, iii) the exploration of the market, and iv) the development of a business plan. In this way it serves as a launch pad to a novel commercial product with the potential to revolutionise quantum research, accelerate the creation of quantum technologies industries while actively engaging, informing and educating society.

Call for proposal

H2020-FETOPEN-2016-2017

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-FETOPEN-4-2016-2017

Coordinator

TURUN YLIOPISTO
Net EU contribution
€ 99 405,00
Address
YLIOPISTONMAKI
20014 Turku
Finland

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Region
Manner-Suomi Etelä-Suomi Varsinais-Suomi
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 99 405,00