Yes, it’s still in progress after several years, but it will happen... Eventually.
I’ve written a ton but got derailed by other projects. Also the more I research, the more I realize I don’t know.
Would be interested to compare notes on manufacturing, materials, etc. My main focus is trying to consider how technological innovations, commercial pressures, usability needs, and aesthetic desires have competed, and led us to the “standards” we now take for granted.
And whether the best of each of these factors have prevailed, or if we could do better. (Generally I see commercial pressures as the bad guy, prioritizing costs/profits over best practices).
An example would be poker tables. We’ve come a long way from a few guys playing four-handed on a wood tavern table or a Union Army blanket. It took a long time for the 9-handed felted racetrack-shaped table with a 10th dealer seat plus a card shuffler and drop slots to become standard.
That standard has a lot of issues, and seems as much the product of sales agents and casino managers as the result of slow, steady, organic changes to the game over decades.
Ideally stuff like cards, chips, tables, seating, lighting, etc. should be the result of millions of people making many small choices until the best options prevail. But if the best versions cost 3x-10x what the most commercially viable ones do, commerce wins and only a tiny percentage of people get the really good stuff. (Speaking here not just about poker but any product or system.)
And now it seems we are entering an era where that standard is facing some challengers (with superelliptical and kidney-shaped tables getting traction, though more on TV than at casinos or home). And 8-handed becoming almost as common as 9.
From what I can tell, the guy who set up Vinton began by just feeding it a zillion hand histories. But it also would appear to have “read” a ton of poker books and forums and strategy papers/sites.
It seems very capable of thinking (simulating thinking that is) about non-math questions, such as image, player types and tendencies, gameflow, etc., even though it was advertised mainly as a hand review project.