Re: counting balls
 

So will scoring be instantaneous this year, or will we have to guess how much each team has at any point? It sounds like they have the ability to give real-time scores, but as they didn't do so last year, I'm wondering if that will be a change this year.

Re: counting balls
 

last year it appeared taht they had the scorekeepers entering the information in real time, but that introduced lag. This year the scoring is done by sensors and computers, so we should get a reasonably accurate score (i hope)

Re: counting balls
 

Yeah, I have heard that there are halogen lights under the acrylic, and when the balls pass through, the camera that is mounted on top of the alliance zone over the goal area. It is able to accuratly count the number of balls that pass through I would think because of the breaks in the light. But dont ask me. :D

Re: counting balls
 

Rumour has it (dez told me!) that it's essentially image recognition. The light just provides a point of refrence for the vision system, and it counts interruptions of that light. Rumour also has it that it can't count ten at a time :yikes:

Re: counting balls
 

I heard it can count more than 17 at a time. Or something.....

Haha, Eric is gunna yell at me when he gets on here, cuz I interpret everything wrong all the time.

Dont listen to me, I dont know what I am talking about!

Re: counting balls
 

Well now comes the question of can you double score :P

I'm sure FIRST has already dealt with this issue but i have yet to hear what happens when a ball enters the goal on the floor (this would be the first time counted), Bounces out (2nd time counted) and then is pushed back in (3rd time counted). Because if it really is just a device that records when a plane is broken then FIRST is going to have to have refs watching the lower goals at all times.

Or am I missing something?

Re: counting balls
 

I dont think they will bounce.

Re: counting balls
 

Agreed. 1293 bounced the ball around yesterday, and FIRST Frenzy balls they ain't. With that ramp in place, I doubt we'll be seeing double scoring.

Re: counting balls
 

And the balls are 7" and I think the opening is 10"or 11" [I cant remember off the top of my head] so there isnt a TON of space for bumping around. and in the top goal the netting will give, so it doesnt have walls persay to bounce on.

Re: counting balls
 

The netting is on the top goal. The scoring is done as it is about to pass down the chute on the high goal...

Re: counting balls
 

I think we should just let FIRST worry about the scoring. They will let us know whats going on. All we need to know is that it is automated, done by sensors and they are working and have worked hard to make it work accurately. :)

Re: counting balls
 

Agreed. the likelihood of double or triple scoring is highly unlikely.
To clarify: section 3.2.2 states "The bottom of the opening is approximately 6 1/2 inches above the ground".
So the probability of double-scoring will be rare and most likely (and hopefully) caught and corrected by the refs.

Re: counting balls
 

this was the only problem we had with the game, was how we could count them with the HP throwing them out, but it is a sensor, it would be soooo much better, thats for whoever put info in

Re: Goal Scoring
 

I had this same question. It seems unlikely that balls will be so on top of each other there won't be any space for the sensor to detect. But the unlikely always happens at some point. Seems like to resolve that, they'd put the sensor slightly off center of the ball to detect near the edge of the ball so there will always be a space between 2 on top of each other.

However, balls won't really get "jammed" going into the hole because the hole is only as big as the ball and there shouldn't be any issues with the balls getting to the hole.

Re: Goal Scoring
 

I merged this thread with another one discussing the same topic. The posts from that thread have been inserted in chronological order, so things hopefully still make sense somewhat.

Happy Discussing!