Im a computer programmer by trade, and have recently completed a project for a big pharma. company.
(Basically, when someone steps onto their exhibition stand, a webcam detects the motion and activates a welcome video, laser installations, etc.)
As I was developing it, I was thinking that this could quite easily be converted to be a lap counter. The motion detection is sensitive and accurate enough I think, but Im concerned about a few things:
1 - would the motion detection be picked up even at top speeds
2 - how to differentiate between cars (Microsoft have done a couple of interesting things with image recognition - if the cars had some image stuck to their shells and the webcam was over the track, the camera could pick these images up clear enough at speed to tell which car is which)
Assuming the points above could be ironed out, it would be fairly straight forward to then adapt the system to have multiple cameras reporting back:
- speeds through different sections;
- racing line variation from lap to lap;
- lap recording and playback;
- even car handling could start to be examined possibly!
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