Last year, the Feinstein Institutes.
Viktor Tth wanted to teach rats to play the video game "Doom II."
It wasn't just a strange hobby. He was not trying to start a channel. The Hungarian software engineer wanted to learn more about brain computer interface, while showing potential insights researchers could gather through similar experiments.
He wrote in a Medium post that his rat training setup consisted of a large polystyrene ball that could be rolled in any direction. A rat was suspended in a harness on top of a computer monitor, where it could move the ball with its feet, and it was mirrored onto a curved computer monitor in front of the gaming rodents.
The rat would move about in the video game corridors as it moved on the ball. Tth gave the rat a tube of water to drink whenever it did a right thing, such as walking down the corridor. Tth said the setup cost less than $2,000.
We had to learn more because it was a bold, ambitious, and downright silly science project. We tracked Tth down to find out if he ever plans on starting a twitch channel or not.
The interview has been edited for clarity.
Where does an idea to make a video game out of train rats come from?
The idea came out of the blue. I was like, "Why not?"
Neuralink put brain implants in pigs to analyze snout detection. This idea came to me. There were some use cases that I saw.
It is relevant to brain computer interface, a space I am trying to get into in the long run. There are a few players in the space that are testing their devices on monkeys and then rolling them out to humans. Rats have a lot of that cognitive capacity, so why can't we just use them?
You can't fully train a rat to play a game like "Pong." The research design is difficult, but once you train the rats in virtual environments, that is huge. You can record all the signals from the rats, or you can go higher up to make decisions.
It seems very complicated but you can do it the same way I did. The game the rat is playing is the only thing that changes.
I did it because it is cool.
Why did you choose this? Why don't we include "Duke Nukem," "Wolfenstein," or "The Legend of Zelda"?
The plan was to train them on the first map. The first map has a lot of environments. It has a very easy start, with clear corridors and simple turns. It is a bigger space, so you can test a lot of stuff there.
The map of "Doom II" is very easy to modify. I was able to remove the first corridor from the map and open it when a rat approached it. They don't need a button or behavior to open doors.
I designed different versions of the map with the imp at different places. I randomly selected one of the maps for the shooting training and the rat started at a different position every time. The rat doesn't learn to shoot at a specific point, but it is the imp that needs to be shot.
The rats were able to go through the maze.
They were not able to complete the full maze. One of the rats I used was the best. I was able to start training him to shoot a gun. If they pushed their front legs up and back, the harness they were connected to would allow them to push a button above it. The button would fire.
I would pull the arm up when he got to an imp. It is the same logic as with the running and the water. He was wondering what was happening. Why is it in front of me? Why am I getting rewards? He couldn't catch what was happening.
I had a hard deadline for the end of July this year, and I just couldn't finish training.
Three rats were trained to play "Doom II". Here is a video of a rat getting surprised by an imp during shooting training.
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Tny H Trn wrote on December 13th, "TonyHoWasHere."
I can't imagine how easy it would be to train rats to play a first-person shooter.
I naively thought I was going to get a few rats. It will take a week for them to get used to me. It will take another week until they run on the ball. That was not what happened.
This was the first time I had ever done an animal experiment. It was a huge learning experience for me as well. It took two weeks for them to get used to me. I was watching a lot of rat training videos on the internet, which showed me how to pet them, approach them, and play with them. It was enjoyable. It took a long time.
I tried to put them on the ball, but they wouldn't run. I had to teach them to eat from the ball. I started to train them to run, but they would get scared and jump off the ball whenever the linear actuator went on, or a motor started running. They got used to it.
It didn't take that long, but still. There were many things that I didn't take into account.
Is there any plan to start streaming on twitch?
I think so. It is a valid way to make money on a project like this. The problem is how long the rat can run.
One time, I had Romero run for 15 minutes. He was doing it for so long that he didn't want to get off. If you can get the rat to express a curiosity in the game, then it could get really interesting.
Rats would play for 10 or 20 minutes straight if you could get to that point. This would be a good way to get people to watch it.
Do you have any plans to build on this project? The rats might be taught to play a new game.
VT: Yes. I moved back to Hungary after conducting the experiment in America. I brought the electronics with me, but didn't bring the aluminum frame. I want to make the next iteration more professional, and I already spoke to some electrical engineer friends of mine.
The setup was a bit hacky. There are wires in the video. There are a couple things I am going to change in the next.
People came up with different ideas for games the rats could play. 3D Pac-Man was one of the ones that I liked. The rats don't like to fight. They run away from the wild. That would be the dynamic with 3D Pac-Man. You have to look back to see if there is a ghost.
The rat has to turn around to be realistic.
You would need multiple screens.
It is very difficult for the rat. That is why these first-person shooter games make sense. It is easy to have rats run and shoot.
The attempts to kill rats are making them evolve.
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