CTIA 2005: 20Q Hands-On

SAN FRANCISCO--Chances are, you're familiar with 20 Questions, the game that classically asks, "Animal, vegetable, or mineral?" followed by a series of follow-up yes-or-no questions. We got a few minutes to be probed by I-Play's mobile version of the game, and we found that it was a lot like playing against a human opponent.

The objective of 20 Questions is to think of an object and then answer a bunch of questions pertaining to it. The first question that you're always asked in I-Play's 20 Questions is to select whether your object is an animal, vegetable, or mineral. Although that's only one variation of 20 Questions, and not all people are necessarily familiar with it, everyone should be familiar with the 19 yes-or-no questions that follow. There's no regimented order or topic for the subsequent questions; they are set up merely to ideally target the object you have in mind. The questions can run the gamut, although there are typically ones that target the color, size, or use of the object. While in the past, the question "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" was pretty standard, I-Play's 20 Questions has modernized a little bit and asks, "Is it bigger than a microwave oven?" The thousands of questions that you can get throughout any given game are arranged depending on your previous answers, so you shouldn't see questions that don't apply, such as "Does it have legs?" when you've selected that you're thinking of a mineral. The game also leaves room for doubt by offering up the option for "sometimes" and "doubtful" along with the standard "yes" or "no" replies.

Although we're certain that the knowledge base for items is not as vast as that of the members of your family, whom you might have previously played this game with on car trips, you can take 20 Questions with you everywhere and simulate the experience. The game will always play through the standard 20 questions, even if it has already settled on an answer (you can tell, when later questions get silly or arbitrary). At the end of the 20, it will guess an object, and, if you've stumped it, it will ask four follow-up questions before guessing again. If you make it through the two guesses and the computer has not correctly figured out your object, then you've won the game. We had fun stumping the game with "bamboo," which is arguably not a vegetable, and we look forward to more question action when the game comes out in Q3 of 2005.