[Ray Gitchell]

Team 525 used vision very successfully in KC with the backing on. Apparently the backing was off in MN 10K Lakes and we spent half the evening on Thursday with the robot on a cart trying to work with the backing removed in a relatively dark background of Williams arena.

We concluded after many "tweekings" of the camera settings that we could not detect the target reliably with the target backing removed, as the arena had lighted advertizements on the walls that would intersect the outer ring or inner ring of the targe and fail to detect the circle-within-a-circle.

We did not try jumping around behind the target, but the human player behind the clear portions of the target, may also cause an issue.

I recommend you have a backup plan for autonomus in the Championships if you find the backing is removed and there are any large white lighted signs or windows behind it. One year we had problems in Georgia Dome with the high-intensity advertizements along the lower edge of the upper balcony seating.
I think they turned them off during the Eienstein rounds.

Good luck to all in the Championships in Atlanta. I love the game this year!