Robotic Dart Players?

I am not going to start talking about Robots learning to play darts (then again just imagine if you could program one to win, what Mr. Taylor and co would have to do to beat them).

Getting back on track now…. Back in February / March of 1985, Unicorn had heard about me looking for a dart to suit my handicap and very generously Mr. Richard Lowy sent me a set of John Lowe 21gram Darts and a years supply of flights & slick sticks!

I actually made the 2nd page of the April edition of Darts Player Magazine beating Eric Bristow by one page (he had just won the Embassy). So then the world knew about Wazza and why I was after the “perfect dart”

At this time I was talking to some people in the United Kingdom who were in the throws of designing a prosthetic arm for people. This “new” design was being tested at the time and actually was able to hold a dart and throw it! I was never told how well the dart was thrown or if it fell on the floor but it had my mind going 100 miles an hour!

But of course when a prosthetic arm is fitted, it (well back then) was fitted onto the person for the basic use, eg: hold a cup, pencil and the like.

I have had my curiosity aroused by this now as a fellow uniBlogger and handicaps are something that is not heard of much in darts. So at the time of writing this I’m wondering what happened to that prosthetic arm? Perhaps it didn’t work out (which is unfortunate for the handicapped). May be Phil Taylor has nicked it! Who knows?

Another thing that was happening was visually impaired (approx 70% eyesight) were and still are being shown how to play, just for fun. Apparently they are pointed at a board and advised on where to throw and how high their arm should be.

This is something that we all need to think about when around handicapped people who are a lot worse off then I, they are having a go. They shouldn’t be ridiculed because they may meet you on the Oche’ (something to think about).