Universal Spy Hand Signals

[TheRealShayD]

Why don't you just hold up a big mirror for your drive team to see what's happening?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by TheRealShayD

Why don't you just hold up a big mirror for your drive team to see what's happening?

Risk of reflecting a vision target at a robot, maybe. That would violate at least two rules if a robot actually tossed a boulder at it.

[priderobotics]

Originally Posted by mentos54

As much as I like the idea of a universal system, it could backfire. If I were able to see where the other robot wants to go, I could easily move to block them. Likewise, I could wait until the human player signals a shot before I ram in, ruining the shot.

If we can't use a universal system, then I'm having trouble imagining how the spy can assist others in the alliance. Is everyone just planning on using the spy for their own individual team purpose, and the rest of the alliance just supposed to ignore him/her?

[JayNico]

Originally Posted by Thromgord

My brief thoughts:

~~~

A general "Wait!" or "Stop!" signal should be putting your right hand up, palm out, in a general "Wait" sort of motion.
A "Don't do [a thing]!" signal should be done by indicating the thing in the ways mentioned below and then drawing right hand across throat, palm down, in the immortal "This will kill you!" gesture.

Defenses should be indicated by pointing at the defensive wall.
If you want to signal the strength of individual defenses, 1) point at defensive wall with left hand, 2) raise right hand over head with between one and five fingers up (indicating which defense you are referring to), and then either put right hand up all the way for full strength, halfway for half strength, and completely down for damaged. Right hand should be palm down. (I should mention that Defense #1 is always the low bar, just to make things clear here.)
If you want to indicate which defense to attack: 1) Point at defensive wall with left hand, 2) raise right hand over head with between one and five fingers up, and 3) make a fist with right hand ("Charge!") If you indicate strength of defenses and then immediately make a fist, it should be interpreted as you wanting to attack that defense on account of its strength. If the robot is misaligned, align it with the instructions provided later.

Actions pertaining to the tower are indicated by pointing at the tower.
"Shoot into the high goal" or "You're aligned for the high goal" is indicated by pointing at tower with left hand and making a "basketball shot" motion with right hand.
"Shoot into the low goal" or "You're aligned for the low goal" is indicated by pointing at tower with left hand and making a "bowling-ball-roll" motion with right hand.
"The enemy's defense has been breached!" is indicated by pointing at the tower with left hand, raising right hand straight up with all fingers extended, and then making a motion as if you're hitting a buzzer open-palmed at slightly above eye level (basically, just rotate elbow down).
"Surround the castle!" is indicated by pointing at tower with left hand and making a fist with right hand.
"Climb the tower!" or "You're aligned to climb the tower!" is indicated by pointing at the tower with left hand and pointing at the sky with right hand.
If the robot is misaligned, align it with the instructions below.

"A boulder is here!" is indicated by pointing to the location of boulder with left hand and then using both hands to mime "holding a boulder" over one's head with hands on either side of the "boulder." (Repeat as needed.)
"Pick up the boulder!" is indicated by pointing to the boulder with your left hand and making a motion as if you're picking up a boulder off the ground with right hand (without stooping).
"A defensive robot is here!" is indicated by pointing to the defensive robot with your left hand and putting your right hand over your heart while making a fist. If the robot is moving, follow it with your finger, bringing your arm closer towards you if it's close to you and further away if it's near the other side of the field.

Directing where the robot moves is done as follows:
Extend both arms straight out in front of you if you want the robot to go in that direction quickly.
The same could be said with extending both arms to the left, to the right, straight back, or at any other angle. (For straight back, put arms up over head, bent at the elbows. You know what I mean.)
If you want the robot to go more slowly, only extend arms partway in said direction.
To stop, use "stop" signal above.

Finally, if your robot or any other robot is broken in some way, point to robot and then put both palms on your forehead.

~~~

That's really all I could come up with for now. I'm sure there are plenty of other signs that need inventing, though.

...and I guess I don't have time to do any more of this, so why don't you invent other signs yourself?

-Thromgord

This, I like this. Nice and detailed.

[pfreivald]

It's not uncommon for people fluent in ASL to communicate across a football field, or through glass, or whatnot. You just sign bigger (a bit like shouting or over-enunciating.)

That said, it's terribly, terribly common for people to teach themselves incorrectly, even when using a video to help, so if the plan is to use ASL, try to find someone who knows it so that they can correct you--and be advised that there are colloquialisms, accents (mine is mostly Western NY with a healthy mix of Californian), regional differences in word usage, and even a Black variety of ASL.

Alas, the best way to communicate would be a fluent use of classifier-based signing, but most ASL classes don't get into that much until ASL 3 or so. (Which, IMO, is silly--I've always introduced classifiers on day one and make extensive use of them throughout my classes, because they're an integral part of ASL fluency.)

[notmattlythgoe]

"Look at me":


"Don't do that":


"I said don't do that":


"You did it again":


"I give up, you aren't listening to me anyway":

[TJScalzo]

Originally Posted by Katherine P

This dictionary is now mostly complete and can be viewed at this link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

It includes a list of lots of signs (In actual ASL) that will prove to be very useful in communicating across the field.

I'm on the same team as Katherine. We'll be creating a video soon that shows all of the signs together rather than as a bunch of separate ones. Once that's made we'll make sure to post a link in this thread. That way we can get some visual learning started rather than just descriptions.

[CindiCC]

Looking forward to seeing that - our team did driving practice with another team and started to use some hand signals. Worth having a common language.

[IronicDeadBird]

Man I was just planning on ditching the spy box role and having whoever is running spy on our team just give me a thumb up or a thumbs down if things were lined up wrong. This is pretty intense stuff.

[thewolfofbhs]

Originally Posted by Katherine P

This dictionary is now mostly complete and can be viewed at this link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

It includes a list of lots of signs (In actual ASL) that will prove to be very useful in communicating across the field.

I looked at the list, and love the idea... our team was creating a list on our own with some similar ideas.. although we haven't gotten quite as far..

Although to make the defenses easier to understand, we decided using numbers to show where on the outerworks it is. Since we are learning numbers for this, we also thought we could use the numbers to tell the time to the teams if they ask.

Our team's dictionary (although not complete) is here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

[IronicDeadBird]

And thus from regional to regional a dialect of spy box was brought into existence and to this day scholars still have no idea how it got so big.

[Foster]

A little disappointed that this didn't become a unified spy-talk. I thought it had so much possibility.

[Katherine P]

Originally Posted by Katherine P

This dictionary is now mostly complete and can be viewed at this link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

It includes a list of lots of signs (In actual ASL) that will prove to be very useful in communicating across the field.

We have fully completed this and if you would like to take a look at it, just click on the link in the quoted post.

[theCADguy]

Has anyone though about adapting the Open Outcry system that is used on some financial exchanges?

http://www.cmegroup.com/education/op...d-signals.html

It's basically a simple and clear method of nonverbal communication used relay information about extremely time-sensitive financial and commodity trades from across a very noisy trading pit such as NYSE. Since it's so simple and optimized for an environment very similar to an FRC event (where there is a lot of noise and time is of the essence), open outcry could be another useful option for spy communication.