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Old 2009.11.30, 05:12 PM   #1
jokeane
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Announcing Easy Lap Counter

Easy Lap Counter is simple way to track your R/C races. It uses a standard external web camera to watch a section of your track for movement. Moving cars are recognized by color, and laps counts and lap times are tracked.

http://sites.google.com/site/easylapcounter/
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Old 2009.11.30, 06:04 PM   #2
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Pretty cool!

I wonder how many different colors it can distinguish at one time. I wonder if you could use Quarter sized colored stickers rather than using the actual color of the car. Could you teach the camera to read these?

Anyway neat concept!!!!
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Old 2009.11.30, 07:58 PM   #3
pedrocamp
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This is great for a home track. I will have to try it with my dNaNo, hope it is not too small!
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Old 2009.11.30, 09:29 PM   #4
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Very very interesting.

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Old 2009.11.30, 09:49 PM   #5
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Great idea for a home track. If it's not top-secret, could you clarify how the software decides when a car passes the exact "1 lap" mark? Getting the location exact is fairly important to obtaining accurate lap time measurements, and a webcam is not classically the easiest way to pinpoint a moving object's position.
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Old 2009.12.01, 11:43 AM   #6
jokeane
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colored stickers

Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicsoul View Post
Pretty cool!

I wonder how many different colors it can distinguish at one time. I wonder if you could use Quarter sized colored stickers rather than using the actual color of the car. Could you teach the camera to read these?

Anyway neat concept!!!!
The 'colored sticker' concept might work, provided the sticker is large enough and the underlying car color is black or dark.

The size of the moving 'blob' in the camera view w/ Mini-Z's and XMods is already quite small, so I've found going with the average overall car color was what worked best for me.
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Old 2009.12.01, 12:02 PM   #7
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timing accuracy

Quote:
Originally Posted by color01 View Post
Great idea for a home track. If it's not top-secret, could you clarify how the software decides when a car passes the exact "1 lap" mark? Getting the location exact is fairly important to obtaining accurate lap time measurements, and a webcam is not classically the easiest way to pinpoint a moving object's position.
The timing accuracy of Easy Lap Counter is relative to the sampling size (area seen by the camera) and how long it takes a car to move through the area. Also a factor is the FPS sampling rate of the camera (speed of camera is based on light levels, CPU processing speed, .etc). I see something on the order of 15 samples per second with my setup (FPS).

So for example if it takes your car 0.2 seconds to pass through the active camera area (about what it is on my track w/ my cars) that is the maximum sampling error for an individual lap time.

ELC has a simple rejection filter based on a minimum allowed lap time (2 seconds). So I count a 'hit' the first time I see a color (provided it isn't too soon after the last 'hit'). Lap times are the time between hits. (Optionally I can take into account the motion direction to avoid counting 'back ups' as laps - see help tips for how to set this.)

Just like any lap counting system, the larger your sampling area (camera view or antenna area) the fewer 'misses' you get. You trade off potentially 'missing' vs. timing accuracy if you reduce the active sample area.

Long story short, if you need super high lap time accuracy, get a very fast camera, bright lights and select only a sub-section of the camera frame as active (see camera menu).

If you just want to have fun, use the entire camera frame as active and look at average lap times rather than individual ones...
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Old 2009.12.01, 01:37 PM   #8
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Need to hook that up to that digital camera that does 1000FPS
Was a Casio I think...
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Old 2009.12.01, 03:35 PM   #9
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I looked at your project page and the setup info was a little thin as of yet. I believe you said to run a race: 'Press the button to start the race and have fun!'

Does this mean the user must stand in front of the computer and click start to start the race, or is there some builtin delay with an audible countdown after the button press? If this isn't a feature currently, it sure would be nice to have...

All in all, an extremely interesting project and very inexpensive to implement. Thanks for the nice work to benefit the entire community!

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Old 2009.12.01, 05:43 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ianc View Post
I looked at your project page and the setup info was a little thin as of yet. I believe you said to run a race: 'Press the button to start the race and have fun!'

Does this mean the user must stand in front of the computer and click start to start the race, or is there some builtin delay with an audible countdown after the button press? If this isn't a feature currently, it sure would be nice to have...

All in all, an extremely interesting project and very inexpensive to implement. Thanks for the nice work to benefit the entire community!

ianc
Sorry for the confusion, I'll clarify that statement about starting a race. After you press the start race button, there is a short count down w/ simple Red/Yellow/Green images and sounds (Ready,Set,Go). I'm pretty sure it is on a 1 second interval. If this needs extending (5,4,3,2,1... Go!) let me know.

I look forward to someone actually giving it a trial run... so far it seem like no one has.
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Old 2009.12.01, 08:14 PM   #11
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Quote:
After you press the start race button, there is a short count down w/ simple Red/Yellow/Green images and sounds (Ready,Set,Go). I'm pretty sure it is on a 1 second interval. If this needs extending (5,4,3,2,1... Go!) let me know.
From my experience, it would be best if it was configurable. 3 seconds does not really sound like enough time to press the button, cross the room, grab your radio and adjust your grip to be ready to race. If it could start at 10, 20 or even 30 seconds, then just beep on the second, or every five seconds until it reached a countdown of 5 (5,4,3,2,1... Go!), that would be great.

Quote:
I look forward to someone actually giving it a trial run... so far it seem like no one has
Don't worry, I'm sure someone will, and soon. Just give it a little time. If people can avoid paying hundreds of dollars just by buying a $30 webcam and using your software, soon you'll have more people than you can handle.

Thanks again for such a great project!

ianc
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Old 2010.02.01, 12:24 PM   #12
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Easy Lap Counter 1.0.7

I've uploaded a new release of Easy Lap Counter which should improve car detection accuracy and overall performance.

I've also verified that ELC works on Vista 32-bit, provided Vista is fully updated.

And I've added simple contrast and hue saturation boost controls if your camera software does not offer them (PS3 Eye).

http://sites.google.com/site/easylapcounter/
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Old 2010.02.01, 05:43 PM   #13
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Do you think this could work outside with a Micro-T?
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Old 2010.02.02, 11:20 AM   #14
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Great!

Hint: "Donate" button!

Don't have time to test it right now, but in a few weeks I will certainly do.
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Old 2010.02.03, 07:04 AM   #15
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Do you think this could work outside with a Micro-T?
It is possible if the lighting conditions are correct. Strong sunlight will make for bright highlights and shadows, which make my job harder. If it is possible to use a 'shaded' area for the spot the camera watches, that would help. Also tweaking your camera settings (lowering contrast, boosting saturation a bit) can help.

ELC works best in a situation with a lot of diffuse indirect light. See the demo footage up on the Google Groups page shot from my camera of my setup.
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