My phone replaced a brass plug

154 points38 comments20 hours ago
greg_dc

Huh! Fellow Edinburgh resident here. I had no idea there was a rifle range here.

xg15

> I wanted to cook venison from scratch, which meant learning to shoot, which meant keeping track of my progress, which meant porting a 2012 OpenCV paper and training a state-of-the-art computer vision model, which meant the dinner took a bit longer than expected.

Procrastination level: Ultimate

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f055

This read is amazing and the development work is very impressive, great job and congrats! That said, my 20-30yo self would end at that. However, my 40yo+ self has a piece of wisdom here: the brass plugs are there for a reason: they slow things down. Technocracy (screens, apps, automation) is not good for our mental health. Human minds need small, calm, slow, manual processes. Like plugging the brass plugs.

thisumang

The title is so bad, can't understand what's it about. Atleast around other topics here.

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RyJones

My USPSA rank is public: I'm terrible with pistols. I haven't shot in competition for over a decade. This is the kind of project that tickles a couple of my nerves and might get me back to the range.

spockz

A very nice read and surprising ending. Love the perseverance of the research and the cleanliness of the app.

jfengel

Scoring is based on the outermost ring, rather than the innermost ring?

Huh. I'd have expected it to be based on the center, but I guess the goal is "it must be entirely within this ring to count" rather than just "I hit this ring".

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donglebix

This ... Is beautiful

_carbyau_

For comment reading edification, there are already electronic scoring targets for shooting.[0]

They use wave detection from each corner - either air/sound or via the target backing - to triangulate and with modern electronics can be quite accurate.

It's nice from an audience point of view to be able to see the results of each shot almost immediately. Kinda like watching snooker championships.

This approach is novel however and has other pros and cons.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_scoring_system

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adammarples

If you always count borderline shots as in, or out, then you will be consistent enough to help you track the only thing that matters, your progress.

HoldOnAMinute

Wasn't sure what to expect when I clicked this link.

jmpman

I've been building a similar piece of software but with vibe coding. It's to the point that I'm using gauge blocks to measure the precise scoring ring dimensions and then using various warping techniques to get the photo to map precisely. In a weekend I've been able to get it to sub pixel accuracy.

ErroneousBosh

> Best gourmet pastries this side of the pond (and they also do doughnuts!).

Haha no, not even close. Saddler's Forfar Bridies take that prize.

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sandworm101

>> .22 bullet is 0.22" across (duh)

Um... No. An american 22 can be very slightly smaller. American-invented calibers are measured to the depth of the grooves in a rifled barrel. The rest of the world measures to the flat parts between the grooves. So no, it is not obvious how wide a bullet is.

And beware the plural. If someone (usually a salty navy person) says that a gun is "50 calibers" he means something completely different than a "50 caliber".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliber

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teiferer

Of all the things one can automate in this whole journey - he chose the ring counting on the shooting range? I don't get it.

I totally see the programming challenge there, but it's in no substantial way making the journey any easier. Any somewhat working human brain can count this quite quickly and then move on with other things.

Really, I don't get it.

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