What is the easiest way to track individual mahjong pieces for analysis?

July 12, 2015 4:55 PM

My goal is to analyze the randomness of mahjong shuffles. So what I am imagining is taking a set and putting something in or on each piece such that after every shuffle I can take an image and know where every piece is. In this way we could know how pieces tend to drift hand to hand and if a particular side is doing a bad job or something.
posted by wooh to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Why not just shuffle them face up and see what you get?
posted by Bruce H. at 5:15 PM on July 12, 2015

these are shuffled by placing them face down and sliding them around, right? you could use some kind of optical barcode, stuck on the back, but people are going to learn the patterns.

it seems like really, if this is while people are playing, it needs to be invisible. and rfid is going to be complicated / expensive.

how about infrared or uv markers? seems that invisible barcodes are a thing.

or play on a glass surface and photograph from underneath?
posted by andrewcooke at 5:31 PM on July 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

If the problem with shuffling them face up is that players aren't blinded to it, why can't you just play a few rounds and blindfold the people while shuffling (or if they wear glasses, just have them take their glasses off)? Then take a picture of it.
posted by gemutlichkeit at 6:35 PM on July 12, 2015

I am thinking QR codes on the back of each. They look random enough that only computers can read them apart. That would solve the "too easy" part of regular barcodes.
posted by kschang at 6:58 PM on July 12, 2015

I like Andrew cooke's idea - glass table, camera with remote under the table, snap snap without interrupting the game. You want the shuffling to be as natural as possible so the game has to be too.
posted by Thella at 11:11 PM on July 12, 2015 [2 favorites]