If you're looking for a bowling partner, here's a hot prospect.
He'll never throw it in the gutter, go over the line, nor eat the last of your nachos. If you're making customized shirts, one could say "MY NAME IS EARL."
So far, so good.
EARL is an automated bowling robot, whose full name is Enhanced Automated Robotic Launcher. EARL can whip a ball down the lane anywhere from 10 to 24 mph, spinning from 50 to 900 rpm. "Robot can bowl a perfect strike every time," proclaims a CNET headline.
Yes, if you thought bowling was too much work, now a robot can do it for you.
CNET's story notes that data produced by experiments with EARL can be "used for setting official rules for the game and for designing equipment like lanes, balls, and even pins."
"He's able to throw a ball to within a tenth of a mile an hour, a third of a board down the lane, more consistant and more accurate than any human bowler," claims Neil Stremmel, the managing director of the United States Bowling Congress.
Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
EARL actually lost in a game to human bowler and PBA star Chris Barnes, 259-209, during a media event this week. But that was only after EARL needed a number of early adjustments. "I'm not sure I want a rematch in six months," Barnes admitted.
Yeah, well. The Dude abides.
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According to a story on the USBC website,
E.A.R.L. was named by USBC Junior Gold youth bowler Melissa Stewart of Roswell, Ga. She figured if bowling great Earl Anthony's nickname was "The Machine," then it was only "fitting to name the new ball-throwing robot for a bowler with machine-like characteristics."
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No reaction yet from Jim Gaffigan.