Ball Color Problem

[Chris Hibner]

Here is a minor thing that I'm hoping FIRST can maybe change.

While I was looking at the manual, my wife asked me what the difference was between the moon rocks and the empty cells. She is slightly color blind and cannot at all distinguish between the blue and the purple on those balls.

Obviously this is a bit of a problem from a spectator standpoint (for those unfortunate to have some degree of color blindness), but I really feel for drivers and coaches that may have this problem.

My wife suggests a red/blue ball rather than the orange purple. She says she can see the difference between the orange and red, but not the blue and purple.

Anyway, just a minor issue.

[gorrilla]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

Here is a minor thing that I'm hoping FIRST can maybe change.

While I was looking at the manual, my wife asked me what the difference was between the moon rocks and the empty cells. She is slightly color blind and cannot at all distinguish between the blue and the purple on those balls.

Obviously this is a bit of a problem from a spectator standpoint (for those unfortunate to have some degree of color blindness), but I really feel for drivers and coaches that may have this problem.

My wife suggests a red/blue ball rather than the orange purple. She says she can see the difference between the orange and red, but not the blue and purple.

Anyway, just a minor issue.

some people with color blindness cant see reds either......
but still, they probobly took that int account when they were designing the game.....

[pentau]

Yeah, I noticed this too. I'm red/green color-blind and I couldn't distinguish at all between the blue and purple strips and only very faintly distinguish between the red and orange strips.

Perhaps the empty and super cells' marked in some other way... (since there are only 16 total).

[thefro526]

I thought of this too when I was sitting with some teammates eating lunch.

Our coach is some what color blind so we'll have to see how that plays out.

[DanDon]

Having just bought empty cells and super cells at the local Wal*mart, this turns out to be a not so small issue, not only for people affected by colorblindness, but also for people with perfect vision. Being able to tell if you're carrying more than one empty cell during the heat of the moment, as opposed to one empty cell and one moon rock will be extremely difficult under tournament conditions (i.e. lighting, glare, robot traffic, etc.).

[smartkid]

I'm not color blind but I am legally blind and I too cannot really tell the difference without being rather close.

[thefro526]

Here's a picture from The Blue Alliance of all the different balls for reference

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/...e48bc1.jpg?v=0

[bduddy]

^ Love that avatar (to smartkid if someone else posts first)... and I sympathize with the topic creator's problem. I'm not even colorblind, and I had a hard time telling the balls apart. Let's hope FIRST can be convinced to use better contrasting colors, or else this will be another officiating nightmare... I'm starting to be relieved they didn't let me be a ref! Aiden certainly won't be able to bring his newspaper to the real games...

[dtengineering]

It seems it wouldn't be too hard to suspend a blinking LED in the middle of a super cell using elastic bands.... although given the rules, perhaps an empty cell would be a better one to have stand out.

It is quite possible that this is an oversight by the GDC that they would like to rectify. Perhaps try redirecting this question to the Q&A forums.

Good point, I hope there is a solution,

Jason

Edit: a lycra cover over the cells might do the trick, too. The fabric ball cover worked last year.

[Branden Ghena]

This could probably be easily fixed by FIRST. They could just wrap some electrical tape in stripes around the ribbons of the empty cells. The stripes should make the balls easy enough to distinguish without changing the balls (i.e. stopping hooks from grabbing them or raising their coefficient of friction)

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by thefro526

Here's a picture from The Blue Alliance of all the different balls for reference

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/...e48bc1.jpg?v=0

I have some color issues as well, looking at the manual I was having issues. But when I looked at the TBA picture, I could see the difference a little bit more. This is one of the worst decisions i have seen FIRST make for such an important point of the game design.

[DtD]

I'm Red/Green Colorblind, and I can only barely distinguish the Moon Rock and the Empty Cell when looking straight at them when they aren't moving (EG: If I pause the video or look at a picture) otherwise they are identical. This is rather annoying because I was hoping to drive for my team this year. (I designed the way it was driven, but never actually drove it till after the comp last year )

~DtD

[flyingcrayons]

yeah our team was discussing this... everything mentioned here was discussed, from the trouble distinguishing the balls for all people, especially color-blind people.

also discussed was the trouble the judges will have since they may not even be able to distinguish the balls... this could be a real hindrance, or it could be an interesting twist to this already very interestong game

[smartkid]

Originally Posted by bduddy

^ Love that avatar (to smartkid if someone else posts first)...

Thanks! I put that together in Photoshop using a backdrop from a project of mine and a picture of Jeremy from Code Lyoko. I love that show!

[usbcd36]

I'm not colorblind at all, but judging from the picture, I would not be able to tell the difference between the two without close examination.