RACE DAY TIMING SOLUTIONS PATCH
RACE DAY TIMING SOLUTIONS SOFTWARE

BLE may be much better hopefully, since it is a more recent implementation.ДЄlso for such sports type stuff, since the area that the measurement is required in is very defined, that could make it easier, since the array doesn't need toВ locate over a very large space! The timing resolution that was needed was 1/100th of a sec at a minimum (that was what the existing photocell system supported) and they would have liked to go to 1msec. I guess it was averaging the location from multiple readings, because of the need to get a good result from many of the antennas in the array.

RACE DAY TIMING SOLUTIONS PATCH

from the first set of readings, they knew the approximate position, then from the next reading it got a bit more accurate, and eventually it would locate the beacon-type device to within a patch of a couple of feet diameter, which was still really impressive. I've not seen the BLE location solution in action yet, but from other AoA based systems (in similar frequency range), they tended to home in on the position, i.e. I guessВ antenna tech is still a way behind to provide accuracy on it's own. members-area/personalblogs/b/blog/posts/pynq-ocr-frustrationД¬ould replace the number with a QR tag but it needs to be visible to the camera for it to work.Д«LE would be a neat way to augment photocell. There was an attempt at using OCR for identifying racing kayaks here which may be of interest: Not so good at the the finish line though if you will have multiple riders crossing the finish at the same time.

RACE DAY TIMING SOLUTIONS SOFTWARE

OpenCV software on a laptop with an appropriate low cost USB webcam could be quick to set-up and also be used to capture an image of the rider crossing the start/finish line with even a GPS synchronised clock in the background as well to provide backup evidence.

You may be able to do similar to detect proximity to the start/finish lines.Д¬amera-based solutions can work out quite low cost these days if you already have access to most of the hardware. During the pandemic some contact tracing systems leveraged this for detecting proximity between people. If the majority of the riders are already carrying smartphones then you may find that you already have access to expensive active tags that can be used. Also the cost and complexity of the tag (x100) versus the cost of the receiver (x2) will likely come into play. You also perhaps need to weigh up using the rider carry the timing information to the finish line as opposed to a separate comms system or redesigning the race such that the finish line ends up close enough to the start line to avoid the need for the long range comms link. Non-contact solutions may not require to have to be so robust but may take longer to set up per race. They are tried and tested by others which saves you time and expensive of doing it yourself. The mat antennas will likely take a bit of a pounding due to repeated physical contact so would need to be robust which tends to bump up the cost if buying off-the-shelf. Having access to laptops / smartphones / radios can sometimes appear to lower the cost. However you are often just paying for it in other ways like your own time spent developing it.Д¬ost perhaps depends on what equipment you already have access to. Having to be thrifty tends to add to the challenge and often results in creative thinking. It sounds like a nice opportunity for someone to write an app for a mobile phone basically, and perhaps a cloud app for uploading the data once there is mobile coverage. The race assistant would merely need to go to the position in the video capture where a contestant has started or finished, and tap to select the contestant name, and let the app handle the rest. As a person starts or stops the race, they could be identified on the video at the start or stop time, and then the times could be collected up, since the phone will be aware of the time that the video was captured. Personally I think the easiest solution would be video based, perhaps an app on the mobile phones of race assistants. Failure to read a tag might be quite likely, especially if the runner is going fast - the long-range tags areВ designedВ to be on products, not humans.

While there are tags that can be read from a distance, they don't provide accurate positioning, so some sort of break-beam type of barrier might also then be needed (I don't know if that's needed for a 3 km race or not). I'm not sure it would be easier with tags.

Race day timing solutions