!!Con 2020 - The Taming of the Clue: Making a Crossword Solver Bot by Chloe Revery
9The Taming of the Clue: Making a Crossword Solver Bot by Chloe Revery
Have you ever tried to solve a crossword puzzle and walked away stumped? Imagine being a secondhand pen plotter from the 1980s! The humble pen plotter – a robotic arm with pen attachments once used to draw graphs for business presentations – is about to get an upgrade! Together we’ll equip it with a shiny new algorithm that parses and solves modern crossword puzzles. On the way, we’ll invent a new file format (or two!), teach the plotter to write the alphabet, and learn about a plagiarism scandal that rocked the crossword world. In the grand finale, the plotter will go head-to-microchip with some of the best solvers in the U.S. in a race against the machine.
Chloe Revery is a San Francisco based coder who makes programs, puzzles, and puns. You can find her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/chloerevery.