London, Jan 23: Researchers at Eotvos University in Budapest, Hungary, have worked out a way of getting a computer to play the 1980s video game Pac-Man, using tactics that it developed by itself.

In the game, the player controls a blob that eats dots and fruit, while trying to stay away from several pursuing ghosts.

If the blob munches a special ‘power’ dot, it can eat the ghosts for more points.

Andras Lorincz and Istvan Szita at Eotvos began by giving the program a selection of possible scenarios, such as ‘if ghost nearby’, and possible actions, such as ‘move away’.

London, Jan 23: The growing use of instant messaging (IM), a form of typed, computer-mediated communication is becoming so conversational, that it is blurring the divide between face-to-face speech

New Delhi, Jan.