[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by mechanicalbrain

which would be pointless because then the driver could see it and use it to his advantage!

This reminds me of potentially (*key word: potentially*) the greatest robot design we had ever thought of. In 2004, we had seriously considered (even got to the points of determining how to actuate it and rough dimensions and soforth) a robot design that would sit in front of the opponent alliance station, telescope some poles out and drop some curtains to block the whole view. If they couldn't see, they couldn't score. Putting GP aside, it was the ultimate winning strategy. That is, until we remembered there was a video screen.

Anyway, the FIRST video screen is a legal and fair display because it is random between views of different robots and of the field. It doesn't keep any one view for very long at all.

Anyway, I don't think there is a good argument that a camera is not a "custom circuit". Maybe it doesn't seem like it and maybe it isn't but the "spirit of the rule" is that FIRST doesn't want any data coming to the drivers other than through the IFI radio modems.