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Chat Area => Archives => Topic started by: Eric Dunn on August 10, 2009, 04:24:55 PM
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I've built a little iPhone app that allow a ref to easily ref a game of foos.
Has 10 and 15 seconds count down timers, keeps track of resets, time outs and goals scored, and who has serve.
This is my first app, so let me know what you think, or what other functions i should add to it.
I'm likely to sell it on the app store for $1, or free, and maybe build a better more pro version, that might include the ITSF rules, and various other nice to have's.
Here's the preview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrGP9Tu19Uc
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I can see a time where something very close to this and the other "jar-o-meter" are built into the table with sensors in the feet of the men or by the bushings to start the time of possession. A button could be pushed to establish a time-out. I know it seems far fetched but ,"Gentlemen, we have the technology."
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now that would be cool, and it could detect where the ball is, and start the timer clock automatically.
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$$ is it worth it
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Eric,
well done, very good...that is practical...when you were toward the end I was thinking the only thing that would be a nice to have would be possesion time and then you brought that up
i think it is nice how it keeps last time but I would like to have it keep the last 20-100 times so a person could review if they wanted...last one visible, the others would require click through to another view...not a need to have, just a nice to have
thanks and good jub again
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Eric... you are making me want to finally get an iPhone! :)
If there are "motions/movements" of the iPhone that could take place of tapping the screen/buttons that would in my opinion actually get this app used!
Tip iPhone right = change of possession of ball to team on right, restart clock
Tip iPhone left == change of possession of ball to team on left, restart clock
(how could you "sense" a 10 or 15 second clock motion.... or would you need to....
.... require a differnet motion - hold phone flat vs upright?
.... could you just use 15 seconds...
.......... then at 5secs left, clock goes Yellow and vibrates once - (time violation on 5rod)
.......... then at 0secs left, clock goes Red and vibrates twice - (time violation elsewhere)
.... get ITSF to change time to be uniform on all rods!!! :) :) :)
For "resets" can you tilt the phone to appropriate team direction & shake/jar the phone?
Last Tidbit
do you need 100ths of seconds? 10ths or just seconds would look cleaner and less motion on the screen might prove less distracting.
Keep the apps coming! thanks.... Jim
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Jim, don't spoil the suprise for future versions!! Yes the plan is to do the no-look / tilt mode in the next version. I wanted to get the "push the buttons" mode out first to get comfortable with iphone app development.
The only limitation i see so far is that the iphone SDK does not allow you to control what type of vibrate you can do. all you have is the ability to ask the phone to vibrate, and it'll do the standard long vibrate which is something that can be heard from the players i would think. I was originally planning on donig the tilt thing, and then the phone would do a small vibrate when 10 seconds goes by, and then a larger vibrate for full 15 seconds.
The last thing i want the app to do is give away the fact that 10 seconds has gone by to a player who has it on their 3. Will have to think on this more. maybe force them to use the ear peice, and play a little noise or countdown 8, 9, 10 and then 13, 14, 15.
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Cool stuff, Eric.
I can see this becoming a commonly-used app for a lot of local tournaments around the world. I've mentioned it to the folks here in Taiwan...
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... to use the ear peice, and play a little noise or countdown 8, 9, 10 and then 13, 14, 15.
Doh... sorry 'bout leaking the "tilt" feature! You can't trust me with anything cool... i'll blabber it to the masses! :)
The ear piece with "countdown audio" sounds like a good way to work around the vibration limitations!
Keep up the cool development!
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Good on you Eric! Are you going to the Washington State Open? I'd like to meet you and see this in person.
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I've made quite a few changes, and posted the app to the app store as iRefFoos. It'll probably be a couple of weeks until its generally available.
It's going to be free to download. I've tested it on my iphone and it works great. If you like, hit me up at worlds, and i can show it to you.
Here's a new video of most of the new functionality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHL97JmZL58
New things i've added.
15 and 10 second count-down timers flash different colors, so you know when you've actually pressed the button - this allows you to use your peripheral vision to know the restart took, without missing the play.
90 second count down timer between games.
5 second count-down timer starts when goal is scored. - but does not vibrate when time expires.
Reset Technical - alerts you with vibrate and red message.
Remembers all current game settings if you leave the app.
Double check on pressing the new game button
Goals will roll over back to 0 if goals scored > 8 and they're leading by more than 2 (this is a temporary thing for now, until i get a better way to fix a mistaken goal scored button press).
Reset buttons only active/visible when timers are counting down to avoid mistaken button presses.
oh, and i found out that ipods no matter what version cannot vibrate - so they'll have to just watch out for the red flash to know when time expires.
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great work Eric...very very good...couple more things I thought of while watching the demo
* you have it flash color for 15 vs 10...why not leave the color background, when I 15 gets below 10, it looks the same as 10...plus, an out of the corner glance would tell you you were on the right time any time you checked
* you mentioned saving current game and you gave an example of going to check ITSF rules and the thought struck me, it would be handy and practical if you had a button for a link to the ITSF rules, in English AND the app saves the game where it is at - doable?
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The first time I implemented the multi-color thing, i did have it so it left the color on the entire time, but then you couldnt visibly know the second time you pressed say the 15 second button.
so you press 15, it turns blue, and starts counting down. Then 5 seconds pass, and you press 15 again - but since its already blue, there's no way to know you pressed the button properly without having to look down and examine the count-down timer. So i put in the flash.
But I do think the idea of using the same button, for 10 and 15, and just changing colors at the approiate time just might work - great idea.
yea, a built in link is doable for sure. I figure i needed another page for things like that, so left it till the next version.
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Hey there Eric!
Not to hijack or anything, but could you theoretically create an app that automatically senses when your wife, girlfriend (signif other, whatever) is in the room or within viewing range.. then automatically disguises (locking is too obvious) any incoming messages or pics & videos (like from yer crusty ole foozbuddies asking you to sneak out, drinking, revelrie'ing, debauching and play fooz) in case someone besides you gets ahold of the phone ?
Like say for ex., a sent pic or vid from the local shoe bar, automatically replaced with one from a recent school board picnic or soccer game. Or a text suddenly re-addressed to come from your mom or someone..
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What is the iphone interface like, Eric - does it use a cursor or screen press to actuate?
I made a youtube comment on your video as clark6466, but the character count confined it too much Here is a more detailed comment.
I dont know if its possible to program the mechanical buttons on an iphone, but if you could, it would be the ideal thing for ref timing (see below).. You would have a great device app that nobody could complain about (and it might even be in apple's best interest to help you program the mechanical buttons somehow = more sales for them?).
As it is now, a ref has to divert his attention away from the table to monitor a timing device, be it a watch or this phone idea, and so cant be as accurate with the timing events that they need to be. Plus, when you look away and then back again, your eyes are going to search the table for a few miliseconds to find the ball again. The ref is inevitably going to miss something in one of those split seconds - if they're human. I dont think anyone would disagree that the ref shouldn't have to divert their attention off the table during play. This iphone idea is worthwhile, in that the ref wouldn't need to see when the time is up, but the present demo requires a manual reset. The need to both find and consistently press a reset button is too demanding for anyone to do in the course of play - and much less practical if they need to move a cursor to press the reset (if thats the case?) . There would be a hell of alot of timer resets in a single game and thus the opportunity for mistakes to be made increases - again, if you're human. Its hard enough to ref a match without your timing mistakes becoming known by false alarms stopping play, while you're in control of the reset (its embarrassing, from experience). It would be ideal if they didn't have to look at the device interface to reset or start timing.
I've made various hand-held timers before and the design eventually evolved to a momentary switch that runs a timer as long as the button is held down and auto resets when its released. This allows a ref to operate both buttons with two fingers of one hand, freeing his other hand to feel the table jars. Theres more confidence that your two fingers are resting on a raised button by their feel. A ref wouldn't miss a microsecond of ball play on the field. Anyone claiming a ref doesn't get distracted by looking away has never tried reffing a match. Its also defending a timing method that should have been history a long time ago. I expected digital foos timers to have been in use already, so am surprised that they still aren't. This isn't rocket science folks - googling "digital timer schematics" is all a resourceful fooser needs to put one together. the easiest designs are audio alarms with no displays. They would be very cheap to produce if you could put the design into a chip, but you'd have to pay for a large production run. The ever optimistic foosers would disagree, but there just aint a market for foos timers right now. (Theres one possibility of a table manufacturer embedding timer buttons at each end of the table for anyone to depress during play, but that takes an owner with smart balls - are there any?)
Phones have momentary buttons in the keypad, so my input would be to suggest looking into the possibility of programing two selected mechanical buttons for the timers - pressing (down) to start and and release to end and auto reset. (You just identify which buttons correspond to which timer) This is easy to do with digital IC's, as most timing chips have reset inputs for either positive or negative going transitions. I dunno, but suspect a program can be triggered this way too?
If you could do that (with any device) i believe you'd find it to be the most elegant design possible for a foosball tournament application.
Some issues to consider would be muting the audio tones with the button depressed, while allowing the timer alarm. Also, i'd check what the battery draw current is when depressed (with tone muted, if possible). A quick and dirty batt test might be to time how long the battery lasts when a mechanical button is held down indefinitely?
How much demand is there for a total game timer?
Your jar meter looks functional enough, but i wonder if it could be calibrated acceptably enough (to fussy players) between any two tables or two different sets of players. Theres alot of jarring events on the table to set it off, but how much of that is interfering with the opponent's ball movements? A human ref would know best. It could work if both sides contributed to it's sensitivity level adjustment and agreed to honor that. It should then be intuitive enough for everyone involved to know which jarring alarms could be ignored during play. (imo)
Good luck to you.
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eric, you could have the flash be No color, or a different color
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Eric
I think it awesome that your putting your app out for free. Can't wait for it to hit the store. Great job.