A video circulating online, showcasing a robot engaged in a game of badminton against two human players, has been debunked as a digitally manipulated clip. India TV's Fact Check team investigated the video and confirmed that it had been altered using computer-generated imagery (CGI) to replace the human player with a robot. The 20-second video, originally portrayed as a genuine event, purportedly demonstrates the robot effortlessly competing against two human opponents in a game of badminton.
A Facebook caption accompanying the video exclaimed, "Unbelievable Showdown: Robot vs. Human in Badminton. Witness the future of sports right here. This epic badminton rally between a cutting-edge robot and a human player is mind-blowing. Video Credits: Huge shoutout to the amazing @BadmintonEnthusiast for sharing this mind-blowing rally."
However, India TV's Fact Check team conducted a thorough investigation and found that the video had indeed been digitally manipulated through CGI. The original video did not feature a robot competing with the human players.
Further analysis revealed that the video was originally posted on TikTok, where various users had shared it. A comment made on one of these TikTok videos, shared by @magicalmagicworld, suggested that the video had been digitally altered to replace the human player with a robot.
Subsequently, a reverse image search was conducted using visuals from the video that showed only the two human players, without the robot. This search led to the discovery of a video posted on Facebook by a page called 'Phalore bedmation club' on October 21, 2021. This video was an exact match to the viral video, with the only difference being that it featured an adult male in a black t-shirt playing against two opponents, confirming that the original video did not involve a robot.
The India TV Fact Check team was unable to independently verify the origin of the CGI video or its creator.
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