Real-Time Scorekeeping for 2005?!

[Billfred]

I've been thinking (especially because I ticked that box on VIMS) about the real-time scorekeepers this year.

Last year, FIRST Frenzy was a second-class pain (as opposed to a first-class pain) in the hindquarters to score. With the random guess on balls, the robots (and refs, and camera people) blocking your view, the all-important question of whether a team is hanging...it was something.

Now, I shudder to think what the real-time scorekeepers will have to do to keep the audience abreast in 2005. After all, we're talking thirty-six things to track (nine stacked objectives, nine contained-under-the-goal objectives, nine possible owned goals, eight rows, and the end zone), versus five in 2004 (balls in mobile goal, balls in stationary goal, were either capped, and hanging).

Does anyone know how the RTS system will work this year, or did FIRST spring for accommodations for its real-time scorekeepers over Saturday night at the local mental institution?

[Ian W.]

Perhaps have four scorekeepers, one for each row of tetras (red, middle, blue), and then one scorekeeper that would keep track of how many rows each team has (completely disregarding the points per goal). Of course, the two scorekeepers on the outside rows would also keep track of if all three robots are back at the end of the match, though that wouldn't matter too much.

It's doable, crazy, but doable.

[Rombus]

think it’s a lot less work than you are thinking. What about this:
The game grid is setup with the goals, each goal has 4 buttons (Red/Blue top Red/Blue bottom) Top tetras would be easy, each button press adds another of that color to it, and since you can’t legally remove them, no need to worry about removal. Underneath would be a bit more complicated, but not too complex. You could write a hardware or software solution that would instantly take into account rows.
Then a section for the penalties
With 2 score keepers, it could be done very easily

[dez250]

RTS is all up to regional events if they want to and have the man power to do it. FIRST has it set up via two ipaqs one for red and one for blue. The software isn't that complex but it takes a calm person who can count and track changes quickly to do. As much as i have seen of it, rows are automagically tracked within the SW by who owns what goals and also you have to remember there are the end zone points and penalties to keep track of besides the tetras and goals. I don't know how many events will use the RTS feature but remember it is in no way an official score. That is the people who may do RTS will be trying to keep up with changes in the match but one wrong click or miscounted or missed tetra in the fast paced action can make it appear lopsided. If you choose to use RTS as a strategy to have an idea of an approximate score at that time, just remember we the scorekeepers are human and at some times cant always keep up.

[mtaman02]

you know i have to hand it to the RTS people, and I wish you luck this year. While there are a few more things to keep track of this year i don't think it will be that hard since tetras CAN'T BOUNCE off the goal nor can they SQUEEZE out of it =) causing a little bit of scoring chaos, once that tetra is there it should be there for good all you gotta really worry about is who's capping what, RTS people shouldn't have to worry about penalties that much either b/c this system in my eyes is suppose to give you an IDEA of what the score could be, and not what it exactly is, after all if FIRST really wanted they could just put little sensors on everything so that the computer can just track and score it appropriately, costly but probably effectively. The only problem is teams wouldn't be able to do much complaining about the way the match was scored cause the referees would say the computer has the final word =)


Oh well Good luck to all the volunteers in 2005 no matter what your doing for FIRST this year.

[Joe Ross]

I think billfred was right on the money. We experimented with RTS in Rochester, and without a lot more practice, it was impossible to keep up.