Unusual/weird/unique billiard tools and implements

When I was young a friend had a spring loaded alum cue stick. You would cock it and their was a button to release it. It was worthless for playing but it was total fireworks to break with. After a little practice you could time the release exactly when making contact with the cue ball and the rack would explode! Think of Jonny Archer's break two. it sounded like the balls would shatter. One had to step away a few paces to avoid flying balls if mishit slightly. FUN!
 
Here is a silly idea that I designed but never made. It is a rubber thing you slide on the end of your cue when you are done shooting that allows it to lean against the middle of a wall without falling over. I think people would quickly get tired of putting it on and taking it off everytime they sit down.

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Here is an app I wrote that uses the phone's magnetometer to observe where the phone is pointing, and calculates the contact point of the object ball based on three measurements.

It worked. The only problem is that I failed to realize that the metal framing of buildings as well as other metallic objects distort the magnetic field so much that it renders the result inaccurate. Ah well.

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Harriman Academy Labs is developing a Project Named: Iron Octopus.

It is a multicamera processing system for color specific tracking on the pool table.
The processing system will use AI to perform table statistics. (Its just difference of frames until balls fall in pocket)
Tracking systems similar to the Iron Dome are in need of info specialists comfortable in a high speed intense environment.

BIRPA wants the programming to be done via voice and through a cloud.
A user gets the Iron Dome SDK, then they start using voice commands, voice commands go to cloud, response times will vary.
The SDK provides a library for users to experiment with a game of nine ball. The basic library is to measure time between shots, balls counts, innings and streaks. The advanced library will allow for secondary measurements like: what is the average distance of my cueball in a match or on a break shot?

Its called Octopus because there are 8 pairs of colors in a pool set. The tracking system will have to manage 8 colors simultaneously. The ability for a system to track multiple targets is considered an engineering achievement, the second metric to improve is the tracking speed.
 
nataddrho said:
Now this one is a doozy. I made an American Rotation scoreboard. This is what happens when you ask an engineer to design something without any user input. Reminds me of the turbo encabulator.

I have to laugh at myself

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Did you program it to store scores in memory or just provide a real time count?
 
tomatoshooter said:
That reminds me, I need to replace the spurving bearings in mine, dots anyone know a good source?
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You can easily re-knurl it yourself with a drill press. There is a tutorial on the back of the fold-out pamphlet on page 823-A, Volume 18. Make sure you are looking in the 4th “Revised” library, not the 4th normal (unmarked) library. The page numbers are different between the two because of the Sanskrit and the diagrams look almost identical.
 
flyrv9 said:
Tom Rossman (Dr. Cue) had a trick cue that had a spring loaded shaft. He cocked it by sliding the shaft into the butt of the cue where it locked and released it by pushing a button on the side of the cue. The shaft then shot forward striking the cue ball. I got to try it a few times. It was pretty cool once you got used to the recoil. Obviously not legal for play.
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Jerry Briesath had one of those back in the early 80s that he would use occasionally to demonstrate to a student that it was their stroke that was causing misses more than their aiming.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
7

CB and 8 ball aren't the same color.

pj
chgo
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This is how I see in programming for memory efficiency.
7 colors + 1 color w/ complement
solid = circle has minimum area
stripe = circle has two colors in area

8 pairs of color profiles are used in the Octopus tracker.
The only way to make it work fast enough was to use hardware to serve as a tracking sensor for the color specific item. Each tracking sensor is custom produced.

The 8 pairs of color profiles are because the system sensor can only track one specific color or no specific color. Tracking 8b and CB are the same thing logically in the system.

Are you interested in sponsoring a Project Octopus feature or exhibition? This demo can go on until a suitable investor is found.

Other tech is available but it is not ready for application. Just ask first.
 
justnum said:
This is how I see in programming for memory efficiency.
7 colors + 1 color w/ complement
solid = circle has minimum area
stripe = circle has two colors in area

8 pairs of color profiles are used in the Octopus tracker.
The only way to make it work fast enough was to use hardware to serve as a tracking sensor for the color specific item. Each tracking sensor is custom produced.

The 8 pairs of color profiles are because the system sensor can only track one specific color or no specific color. Tracking 8b and CB are the same thing logically in the system.

Are you interested in sponsoring a Project Octopus feature or exhibition? This demo can go on until a suitable investor is found.

Other tech is available but it is not ready for application. Just ask first.
Click to expand...
7

pj
chgo
 
Patrick Johnson said:
7

pj
chgo
Click to expand...

After each camera begins tracking a specific color plus the CB, that is 8 cameras for eight different colors.
All cameras will be able to track the CB. 9 colors tracked by 8 cameras. CB is tracked by every camera.
 
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