DigiBall updates

nataddrho

www.digicue.net
Silver Member
For those who are interested…

DigiBall Automatic and High Accuracy Modes

From a first glance do you understand the difference between these two “modes”? Does the app make sense intuitively?

For those who aren’t interested, please try to be kind and understand that it took a lot of work to get to this point.

Thanks
 
Looks like you need some Taom chalk. JK. I’m not smart enough to comprehend all that but can appreciate you have taken this on as your life’s work.
 
From the description….

Example of DigiBall automatic and high accuracy modes. Automatic mode uses an internal accelerometer to estimate the tip position, but requires no user interaction with the mobile device. High accuracy mode uses distance and time to calculate both speed and tip position.

In high accuracy mode, the blue line is a plot of spin over time, where the X axis is time and the Y axis is total spin magnitude. Collisions can be identified by a sharp drop in spin. Also, the vertical red line will align itself with the time-of-first-collision. It is not accurate in this test because a wooden backstop was used instead of a billiard ball.

The cue ball in this demo has a flat spot because it is a prototype.
 
From the description….

Example of DigiBall automatic and high accuracy modes. Automatic mode uses an internal accelerometer to estimate the tip position, but requires no user interaction with the mobile device. High accuracy mode uses distance and time to calculate both speed and tip position.

In high accuracy mode, the blue line is a plot of spin over time, where the X axis is time and the Y axis is total spin magnitude. Collisions can be identified by a sharp drop in spin. Also, the vertical red line will align itself with the time-of-first-collision. It is not accurate in this test because a wooden backstop was used instead of a billiard ball.

The cue ball in this demo has a flat spot because it is a prototype.
When you click on that video it doesn’t show a description. It might on you tube but not if you tap the video on your phone and watch and aren’t on the app. I will probably buy one when you finally release them
 
It looks like you have a mode now where the user doesn’t need to help input distance or contact time (the automatic mode)

I like the automatic mode as it looks like it was pretty accurate for the examples you showed. I suggest to the extent you can, that the default mode in the app appear just like the English diagrams we already are all familiar with.
 
I suggest to the extent you can, that the default mode in the app appear just like the English diagrams we already are all familiar with.
This is what I have so far for options for an OBS plugin (live streaming overlay) that will go in the corner of the screen. The streaming operator can choose which one they want.
 

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A word of caution……Don’t get like MLB has become with a avalanche of metrics about pitching and hitting.
At some point, one has to remember it is a game of judgement and the player’s mind can’t keep up with the
prolific amount of information that can be gathered and analyzed to suit that player’s susceptibilities & skills.

I cannot determine how many revolutions the cue ball exhibits when I strike it using different English or velocity.
Besides, I don’t need that information to know I used too much or too little. I can see the results of my stroke.
Additionally, I can’t accurately predict how many more, or less revolutions of the CB, would alter the outcome.

Don’t infer I am criticizing the development of this product. Personally, I think it could be ground breaking but I
want to point out too much data is just as bad as not enough data. This is merely a training aid, not a panacea.
The information gathered, analyzed & displayed has to be meaningfully communicated to a player for max value.

Just avoid getting in the weeds like MLB’s trend has become. There were great players before there were computers.
 
I also do not subscribe to lots of numbers that represent things. There are some people I know that love all of the MLB stats but I don't get anything out of it. All I understand are things like the baseball staying inside or going outside of the virtual strike zone box, or the simple yellow 10-yard line drawn on a football field, or the little landing mark of where a tennis ball landed to show in or out of bounds.

The surface of this entire project is to simply show you where you hit the cue ball. It is information we can not easily access ourselves directly. I want to represent this graphically to make it as easy as possible to absorb. Any explanation needed will be too much, it should be extremely obvious. At least that is the goal.

The two major applications are as a personal training aid, and as a live inset in a stream so that commentators can have discussions about tip position if they want to. They can turn on and off the overlay as they talk about it, etc. Possibly they may like to know break speed in MPH, maybe the rare mention about spin-speed ratio, but other than that I don't think they (or viewers) will care much about numbers.

Under the surface, for those who care, and for the real pool practice geeks, there is a lot of high-accuracy numerical informational available. But I am aware that most of the appeal is just in the cue ball graphic with tip location.

---

Now, as for the discussion of using cue ball outcome as an indication of exactly where you did hit the ball, I partially disagree with this argument. Someone can chronically be dropping their elbow slightly before contact on every stroke, and give the cue ball a tiny bit more follow, for their entire pool careers, and never know they are doing it. It may make them try some things they never tried before. There are one or two major revelations that this product can make upon a player that would otherwise be very difficult to realize by ball behavior results alone, possibly enough it make it worth it to them.

Further, cue tip precision is even more important in carom games than pool, and the value in that field may be more well accepted than in pool. Some pool players avoid using spin completely, and I forget that these players even exist. These players wouldn't understand the value of this type of product without some explanation, or by seeing the results of it from their favorite players on their favorite stream. I want to start seeing discussions like "How exactly did SVB hit the cue ball to make that combo drop" or "How much reversal did Sanchez use to keep a short-long-short pattern so compressed", etc... On the other hand, I don't ever want to hear people arguing between "400 and 500 RPM" lol.
 
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