A Study of TRAX Player by Template Matching

This paper focuses on making a game strategy based on pattern matching and unveils the significance of pattern sizes from experimental trials. In this proposing approach, each pattern functions as an evaluation index, which weighs the relative merits of the next move. An image processing method, template matching, can efficiently implement the pattern comparison on an FPGA, and it enables to compute the comparison for every clipped area of a match in parallel. This paper chose TRAX as the game environment; TRAX invented in New Zealand is a two-player zero-sum game with perfect information. The evaluation adopted more than 300 core patterns that are expressed by up to 8×8 squares. The experiments show an impressive result. For example, the combination of 4×4 or smaller templates played a dominant role in deciding the next move. More than 90 percent moves generated by the proposed approach were categorized to this case. However, in some cases, the small-sized patterns could not find the superior move compared with the move generated by large-sized patterns. Although the possibility may be less moderate, 5×5 or larger-sized patterns were used as a complemental function.