Quantum Moves 2 beta launch
Quantum Moves, our first game success still drives plenty of attention towards our project even though the game itself is not active since GDPR came into force in May 2018. We are happy to announce that a new, updated beta version of Quantum Moves is in the finishing line! The project coordinator and early stage researcher(ESR) of the QuSCo project, Shaeema Zaman Ahmed talked about the new functionalities and opportunities of the new version.
There are three major novelties in the new version. Firstly, the science behind the game is building on the previous. More scientific levels in the game make it possible to work not only with quantum computing but also with quantum matter-wave optics. The scientific levels are based on real experiments which are executed in many labs all over the world. So far the players were moving only single atoms in the game but now they will be presented with the real simulation of the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC), a large collection of atoms in an ultra-cold state.
Secondly, many players' wishes finally coming true. A number of dedicated players contacted us during the first success of Quantum Moves, telling that they would have loved to review their previous solutions and improve it. Now they can do that and even more: it will be possible to review and replay solutions, slow down the speed and optimize it.
Optimizing solution leads to the third point: getting access to the optimizing algorithm. Conventionally, the process of optimizing solutions is done only by researchers or research groups but we would like to involve Quantum Moves players in it. The complicated algorithm will appear to the players as a simple button but it will be the players who choose which solution is worth optimizing and how long should the algorithm run in terms of the number of steps. This is an important step towards hybrid-intelligence and also towards extreme citizen science where citizen scientists are involved in different parts of the research process and get more understanding about the research problems.
All these science novelties and functionalities make the game a bit more complicated but hopefully also more engaging to dedicated citizen scientists. It's important to remember that still each and every contribution matters, even if someone only spends five minutes on the game. You can never know which solution might be a really good one—that's just the nature of the represented scientific problem. Aware of the more complicated gameplay, a series of in-game onboarding and videos are in the production line, hoping that the previously enthusiastic Quantum Moves players will be interested in the extended functionalities and a new chance to learn more about the science behind the game.
The game is also an important gateway towards hybrid-intelligence. The current quantum control optimization algorithms are based on computer-science optimization and machine learning. When humans are involved in the optimization process, they make it possible to build hybrid-intelligence, which is the next step. While the news is all about A.I., in order to make it useful at some point, we need hybrid intelligence first. This game could be a step toward building hybrid intelligence algorithms.
Danish:
Beta lancering af Quantum Moves 2
Vores første spilsucces Quantum Moves kommer nu med en ny betaversion. Spillets første version har været inaktivt siden maj 2018 pga. EU's persondataforordning GDPR, men det er stadig holdt i live af omtale i bl.a. bøger og artikler.
Spillet har fået nye funktioner, der skaber flere videnskabelige niveauer. Som noget nyt skal man ikke kun at bevæge ét atom, men holde styr på en samling af atomer. Vi har derudover tilført muligheden for at gense tidligere løsninger, sætte hastigheden ned og forbedre dem.
Der er nu muligt for spilleren at optimere løsningerne, som før var overladt til forskerne vha. optimeringsalgoritmer. I spillet foregår det ved trykket på en knap, hvor spilleren tager stilling til hvilken løsning, der er værd at optimere på. Det kan bane vejen til hybrid-intelligens.
Spillet bliver lidt mere kompliceret end før, men som altid tæller alle bidrag. De udvidede funktioner vil forhåbentligt også gøre spillet mere interessant for dedikerede spillere og give mere indsigt i videnskaben bag spillet.