Mom and Dad flew in on wednesday. They've come to visit for a few days. I think they are happy to be 'out of Dodge' for a little while. We went to have lunch on the beach yesterday and then to the boat. We'll see what we can get into today.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Mom and Dad come to visit.
Mom and Dad flew in on wednesday. They've come to visit for a few days. I think they are happy to be 'out of Dodge' for a little while. We went to have lunch on the beach yesterday and then to the boat. We'll see what we can get into today.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
3D cam usage in the Big Race
They only took one of our 3D cam builds during the race on Sunday. There were several reasons for this. The biggest reason has to do with technology:
Since the virtual racing is all based on instantaneous data that we're getting from the cars that tells us WHERE on the track they are - if something goes wrong with that data - the computer does not know where the car is (that the data is linked to) and so the car simply does not appear on the screen. There's no other way to do that when you think about it. You can't just guess and then manually put into the computer where you think the race car is at that moment.
Well, if you're a big race fan, you'll know that the "in car" cameras for most of the top guys were switched from standard definition to High Definition for this this year. All of the information from that camera in the car has to be transmitted to a receiver via radio frequency. Of course, a high definition camera has more data to transmit than a standard definition camera.
The antenna that this is transmitted from is located close to the antenna that our data is transmitted from (and has been for years). In the past, we've worked with transmission filters that reduce or eliminate interferance from the camera transmission. When they changed cameras, they also changed the transmission hubs and frequency that they transmit on and we didn't find out until Saturday night that this was causing us to lose our data. You can imagine what a big deal this was to us. We had been there for almost 3 weeks preparing for the races (with the Daytona 500 being the grandpappy of them all) and then the very data that all of our products are based on is being squashed as it tries to leave the car.
Well, this is why Sportvision brought the Geniuses out for the first race. They were able to work a 'patched' plan that allowed for most of our data on most of the cars to make it to us - BUT still not all data from all the cars.
So when you consider that we never had data on Tony Steward (car 20) the whole night and we were intermittant on data with many of the other top guys, all of our attempts to build a good replay in 3D would be without a key car in the rendering.
The one build (clip) that did make it to air was acceptable, but I think far from exciting. I'm sure it'll improve at future races.
Since the virtual racing is all based on instantaneous data that we're getting from the cars that tells us WHERE on the track they are - if something goes wrong with that data - the computer does not know where the car is (that the data is linked to) and so the car simply does not appear on the screen. There's no other way to do that when you think about it. You can't just guess and then manually put into the computer where you think the race car is at that moment.
Well, if you're a big race fan, you'll know that the "in car" cameras for most of the top guys were switched from standard definition to High Definition for this this year. All of the information from that camera in the car has to be transmitted to a receiver via radio frequency. Of course, a high definition camera has more data to transmit than a standard definition camera.
The antenna that this is transmitted from is located close to the antenna that our data is transmitted from (and has been for years). In the past, we've worked with transmission filters that reduce or eliminate interferance from the camera transmission. When they changed cameras, they also changed the transmission hubs and frequency that they transmit on and we didn't find out until Saturday night that this was causing us to lose our data. You can imagine what a big deal this was to us. We had been there for almost 3 weeks preparing for the races (with the Daytona 500 being the grandpappy of them all) and then the very data that all of our products are based on is being squashed as it tries to leave the car.
Well, this is why Sportvision brought the Geniuses out for the first race. They were able to work a 'patched' plan that allowed for most of our data on most of the cars to make it to us - BUT still not all data from all the cars.
So when you consider that we never had data on Tony Steward (car 20) the whole night and we were intermittant on data with many of the other top guys, all of our attempts to build a good replay in 3D would be without a key car in the rendering.
The one build (clip) that did make it to air was acceptable, but I think far from exciting. I'm sure it'll improve at future races.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
3D cam
Here's a computer screen shot of the 3d cam that we've developed. It's really cool to watch it get tweaked more and more every day. The software engineer is here at the race and making the changes that I and the other operator are suggesting. He has added 'global lighting' which allows you to set the time of day and the sun reflects on the car accordingly. The controls are getting much more fluid as well. It's super cool. Be sure to look for it on the race Sunday (if you watch it)
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Daytona Speedway continues
This is one long project. In all, I will be working 20 days in a row - although it by no means is slave labor. Some days are very laid back with just being ready in case there's a problem that needs immediate attention and then some days are packed full. Yesterday (saturday) was a 16 hour day from 7 am to 11 pm. It wasn't a 'work,work, work' kinda day, but still - I was on my feet for 16 hours, so I was pretty tired when I got home.
Our unveiling of the 'virtual cam' was well received during the Bud Shootout. They showed a quick demo of it during the race and announced that it would be used this season and then they used it to show a wreck at the end of the race. The 'buzz' about it is pretty positive.
On a daily basis, we have to go to each of our 6 cameras (there are over 25 cameras being used in the show - but 6 of them have our sensors on them) and reset our data sensors. I've put some photos from some of our locations below:
This camera (camera 5) is in turn 2 and has a good view down the backstretch.
This camera is in turn 1 and is primarily used for the frontstretch and especially pit row.
One of the cameras is on a platform on a crane that is hoisted up before each race with the cameraman on it. I've been up it twice and it's pretty cool. You get a neat perspective of being 'over' the track. This crane/camera is in turn 3.
The view of the racetrack from the crane camera.
Me on the crane camera
Looking down at the crane truck
Our unveiling of the 'virtual cam' was well received during the Bud Shootout. They showed a quick demo of it during the race and announced that it would be used this season and then they used it to show a wreck at the end of the race. The 'buzz' about it is pretty positive.
On a daily basis, we have to go to each of our 6 cameras (there are over 25 cameras being used in the show - but 6 of them have our sensors on them) and reset our data sensors. I've put some photos from some of our locations below:
This camera (camera 5) is in turn 2 and has a good view down the backstretch.
This camera is in turn 1 and is primarily used for the frontstretch and especially pit row.
One of the cameras is on a platform on a crane that is hoisted up before each race with the cameraman on it. I've been up it twice and it's pretty cool. You get a neat perspective of being 'over' the track. This crane/camera is in turn 3.
The view of the racetrack from the crane camera.
Me on the crane camera
Looking down at the crane truck
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