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Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

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Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#121

Post by ohitsdom »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #87
traviswingo wrote: post #51

This is badass. As an athlete whos heavily into extreme sports I'd buy one in a heartbeat. I think you've got some JavaScript issues going on with your page, though, It keep jumping to the top of the page when I'm scrolling down.

We kitesurf and use GoPros, often on tripods on the beach. People come up and take them as soon as we're more than 200m away. It's quite easy for us to spot them, confront them and get it back. But it happens all the time No. 1 rule - don't leave anything of value on the beach.

I've had multiple people try to take my beach chairs, so this isn't surprising at all.

Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#122

Post by usaphp »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #87
traviswingo wrote: post #51

This is badass. As an athlete whos heavily into extreme sports I'd buy one in a heartbeat. I think you've got some JavaScript issues going on with your page, though, It keep jumping to the top of the page when I'm scrolling down.

We kitesurf and use GoPros, often on tripods on the beach. People come up and take them as soon as we're more than 200m away. It's quite easy for us to spot them, confront them and get it back. But it happens all the time No. 1 rule - don't leave anything of value on the beach.

What do this people say in their defense when you find them?

Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#123

Post by davnicwil »

throwaway999666 wrote: post #96
davnicwil wrote: post #12

Looks to be an amazing piece of engineering but seriously, what's the usecase? It looks to be targeted at the amateur market ('shoot like the pros') and I just don't see the demand or workability in this space. To pick on a few hinted at on the page: A game of football: Leaving a camera on a tripod on the sideline while I'm focused on the game? Not in any park I've ever played in. Taking the stick from my teammates f…

> Taking the stick from my teammates for being enough of a nerd to set this up? Are you 12? Who gives a shit about shit-talking...

I meant this to be a bit tongue in cheek, of course this wouldn't actually happen in any serious way or matter if it did, but suppose it hints at a broader point that tech needs to be inconspicuous to have mass, everyday appeal.

I'll admit, setting up an automated camera tripod rig at a non-professional sport event would make me feel a bit awkward.. and dare I say pretentious. That's just me, I only take part in really amateur level sport where this would be the case. I can totally see lots of more serious/competitive athletes going for this.

Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#124

Post by discardorama »

makomk wrote: post #97
discardorama wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is GPS really that accurate, though, that it'll locate you with enough accuracy to allow a camera to center on your position? If it is indeed using GPS, I'm guessing it's using a GPS in the camera base too, to figure out the correction.

Short-baseline differential GPS with a base station can have cm-level accuracy, if I remember correctly.

That's what I was thinking. Both are viewing the same satellites, since they're close to each other. The base, since it knows it's stationary, can derive the corrections itself, and figure out where the object is.

Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#125

Post by IanDrake »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #87
traviswingo wrote: post #51

This is badass. As an athlete whos heavily into extreme sports I'd buy one in a heartbeat. I think you've got some JavaScript issues going on with your page, though, It keep jumping to the top of the page when I'm scrolling down.

We kitesurf and use GoPros, often on tripods on the beach. People come up and take them as soon as we're more than 200m away. It's quite easy for us to spot them, confront them and get it back. But it happens all the time No. 1 rule - don't leave anything of value on the beach.

>People come up and take them as soon as we're more than 200m away.

I don't have this problem where I surf, but here's some thoughts I've had about it...

- Attach a motion alarm (made for purses and such) that will go off and at least attract attention if someone moves it.

- Put a sign on it that says "Do not touch. My buddy is watching this camera." or "Due to recent theft, I have a HIDDEN camera recording this camera."

Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#126

Post by Animats »

There was AIMe [1] which was supposed to do much the same thing. But then, instead of shipping the $299 version they still advertise on their site, they decided to market a $5000 "professional" version instead.[2]

There's Pixio, which has a kickstarter.[3]

Soloshot is $399 on Amazon, with customer reviews, so it's a shipping product.[4]

Reviews of Soloshot indicate that it has a minimum range. You have to be at least 30 feet from the camera before it tracks properly.

[1] http://www.jebiga.com/aime-automatic-tracking-camera-mount/ [2] http://www.jigabot.com/launch/ [3] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/world-s-first-indoor-outd... [4] http://www.amazon.com/SOLOSHOT2-with-Base-and-Tag/dp/B00DSGI...

Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#127

Post by IanDrake »

brianstorms wrote: post #108

It's very cool, but the demo videos suggest that the tracking isn't ideal yet. Which susprises me, because we only have what, 50+ years of R&D with tracking moving targets. As in, if you can figure how how fast the target is moving across the field of view, you should be able to predict where it is going to be in the next frame, PLUS, take into account the latency of the Soloshot motor, and calculate that all togethe…

In practice, tracking has never been a problem for me. Have you seen the demos of it tracking quad copters?

Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#128

Post by apaprocki »

DenisM wrote: post #72
apaprocki wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also get entire rooms wired for this as well. I recently helped design one of our presentation rooms where the system (with the help of a lot of array mics) processes who is speaking and if the speaker puts the room into Q&A mode it will focus on / boost whoever is speaking. The intent was to get rid of the "could you repeat the question" issue (anyone who has ever been to a NYTM knows this one :)) or awkward…

Did that end up working well when you were done with setup?

Yes.. it works remarkably well and is tuned so your brain doesn't even notice the amplification. If, for example, the reverb is jacked up to make the room sound like a cathedral then your brain immediately knows it is "fake" -- but under normal settings unless the system was explained, someone in the room would not notice what is going on.

Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#129

Post by ZeroFries »

segmondy wrote: post #74

Like many ideas I have had, I'm both happy and sad. I had this idea a good 5 years ago. Kicking myself, but then again, I' not a hardware guy.

It's a fairly obvious idea; the difficulty is definitely in execution, not conception.

Re: Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator

#130

Post by trdrake »

Dwatson783 wrote: post #50

I've seen some interesting points in this thread about target users of the product and the big issue seems to be: - Target user group is unlikely to spend this much on the type of equipment and/or isn't technically inclined enough to leverage it. At first glance I'd say this is fair, based on traditional markets and camera use but I'd argue 2 things: 1. The demand of this type of product is likely to rise. As self br…

...and if you're the facility, you're renting the film to the team.

Also, from experience an increasing amount of the coaching of youth soccer is outsourced to coaching companies (like QuickStrike or PlayersEye), and some of them are starting to include video analysis in their packages.

And then there is, for what it's worth, recruiting films. There's a lot of people trying to video their kids and putting together a college recruitment highlight reel.

People doing that would be happy to drop what is, in reality, not very much money to help put together something they hope will save them $10Ks in tuition

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