Re: Game Hint #2
 

The delay from when the camera captures an image until it is displayed on the driver station varies between two and five seconds. Most drivers would find this to be infuriatingly slow.

However, with the processing power on the robot, the pattern matching, color detection, or pixel counting happens in a few hundred milliseconds. The robot reaction time with imaging processing is actually faster than the driver can react with full visibility of the field.

Though it might be fun to have the camera image at the driver station, it is unlikely to provide the driver any edge during the game.

jerry

Re: Game Hint #2
 

Yes you did, but you post your team number in your profile as being "911", so we can't tell what team you're really on.
The GDC knows everything! ;)

Re: Game Hint #2
 

Well that's interesting, to bad about the 2-5 sec. delays. It could provide a edge if it were a curtain game, but I'm not sure how well that idea would work out now, reading your comment.

Re: Game Hint #2
 

I was wondering if drive could be a golf reference. There is a place called Bogey Pro on Minnetonka (15109 Minnetonka Industrial Rd Minnetonka, MN 55345-2112). Golf bots anyone?

Alternately the drive and pickup references could be a car dealership reference, but I only see Minnetonka Motors (15115 Minnetonka Industrial Rd Minnetonka, MN 55345-2112)

The ice arena that was mentioned before is on Williston, but that intersects with Minnetonka Blvd. Considering the first clue seems to line up with Zamboni an ice arena would be a good fit, but I'm not convinced.

Goin Postal as mentioned before is also a good fit, but I can't figure out where that clue would lead us. Mailbox? We'll be moving boxes? Postal? We'll have to climb a post? And there is the possibility that it could mean it's a shooting game, but that kinda seems in poor taste for a FIRST clue.

Re: Game Hint #2
 

thanks for that, all fixed now.

Re: Game Hint #2
 

One of the tasks for teams when doing testing for the viability of hydrogen fuels cells as a power source was to create a rough game that used the fuel cells based on what the team found. 1816 roughed out a game that sounds somewhat similar to what you are saying here. So, something along those lines has actually been submitted to FIRST and it has been a few years now since that was submitted.
-Ryan

Re: Game Hint #2
 

Ah. I didn't know that. Thanks.

Re: Game Hint #2
 

I just recently looked at this clue and took a little different approach at deciphering it than others. I took this set of numbers as Cartesian coordinates to a vector that points outward. If the earth's center was placed at the origin, the vector would point to 76.4095839 degrees north latitude and 59.21185 degrees west longitude. I determined this by using the spherical coordinate system parametrization to convert to latitude and longitude. This is a point near the shore of Greenland (see below). This could also point to some sort of ice in the game??? Any thoughts about this approach?

Re: Game Hint #2
 

even if it doesn't come out to be true, thanks for the effort.

Re: Game Hint #2
 

What set of numbers?

Re: Game Hint #2
 

well isent the greenland ice cap the biggest in the world?

oh, and dover england? are we crossing the channel?:D

Re: Game Hint #2
 

Maybe the name of the game this year will be "Shoot for the moon!" :rolleyes:

Re: Game Hint #2
 

Four different locations:
Paramount refers to the west,
Phoenix refers to the south,
Minnetonka, the north,
and Dover, Delaware is east.

Compasses involved in the game?
Those have been previewed in the last couple of years.

Four different tasks, one that can be completed in each location?

Or am I taking it too literally?

Re: Game Hint #2
 

Last night, after dinner out with friends, including CDs resident Grammar Curmudgeon, the beautiful KarenH and I were musing on the #2 clue as we drove home. Since it was still fairly early and we only live about 10 minutes away (in good traffic, like at 9:30pm) we decided that the best way to extend the evening was to go see what is really on Colorado in Paramount, CA. Boots (or tires) on the ground beat internet speculation any day.

Colorado Ave parallels Paramount Blvd, a major north-south street in the area. It is one short block west of Paramount. Most of the lots on the Paramount side are commercial and most on the west side are some form of residential. There are exceptions in both cases.

Colorado Ave has three sections.

The Northern section has a children's dentist and the back side of several businesses. Including a furniture store and a mexican restaurant. The rest of the lots are multi-family residential (duplexes)

South of Roscrans, a major east-west street, Colorado Ave gets swallowed into a giant swap meet for several blocks. The middle section is mostly residential but there were two businesses of interest. One was a printer (one way to make your mark) and the other a gasket store called Bentley's. The gasket place also deals in appliances and HVAC equipment. The east side of the street had some apartment buildings and the west side was mostly single family homes. This section ends as the back way into a strip mall on Paramount.

The southern section ends between City Hall and the local hospital (the body shop?). In about the middle of this section is the place in the attached picture. Across the street was some kind of equipment yard with many high lift forklifts, lighting trucks and other heavy equipment. It had a gate onto Colorado, but it was apparently not the main entrance. This area seemed to be small manufacturing/commercial but there were not many names on buildings and it was hard to tell were one place ended and the next began. Zamboni seemed to take up their entire block. They are BTW at the corner of Colorado and Madison. A coincidence? There was also a lumber yard in this area, the main entrance was on Paramount but they had a back gate onto Colorado.

While there are other things it could be, Zamboni (whether it applies to the ice resurfacing machines or their apparel line) is a strong candidate as the answer to this part of the riddle. But what does it tell us about the game? that we will be playing on a slippery surface or one that needs to be reconditioned frequently? or just that they are saving money by not turning the heat on in the arenas? Anybody want to make detailed investigations of the other locations?

Time to go do something useful, before I have to go visit Bentley

ChrisH

Re: Game Hint #2
 

Nice work! Looks very icy. It goes along very well with EricH's theory that he had at the begining of this thread.....