Soloshot: Automatically film outdoor activities without a camera operator • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by skatenerd » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:18 AM UTC

CodeCube wrote: post #21

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…

I think you underestimate the utility. Think of parents or family members that attend football games. They're often stuck watching the game "through the viewfinder" if they want to film it ... this frees them up to look with their eyes. You also underestimate extreme sports where you want to film a trick over a given obstacle. This would be fantastic for skateboarders. Boxers who want to film themselves during a work…

Skating with a filmer is often a social activity :-)

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

#162

Post by Animats » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:21 AM UTC

apaprocki wrote: post #43

ggrothendieck wrote: post #40

Not the same but there exists a microphone which can be thought of as an audio version of this: https://www.acousticmagic.com/ It senses the direction of the speaker and outputs audio from that direction filtering out audio from other directions. As different speakers in different locations speak it changes the direction it uses. It also outputs a location signal that can be used by software to, for example, have a c…

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…

That's a technology that's been available custom for a while, but it's hard to deploy. There's a startup opportunity for someone to do a moderate-cost presentation system that's installed in conference rooms, hotels, and such that Just Works. Lighting control should be automated as well; if someone is projecting something, the lighting should be automatically adjusted for that.

And automate HVAC control properly, too. Put a temp/humidity/CO/CO2 sensor in the return air duct, and a motion detector in the room, and tie them into the HVAC controls. All conference rooms and college classrooms should have this, because the people load varies enormously from hour to hour. (As a room fills up, the temperature goes up and the CO2 content in the return air goes up. This tells the HVAC system to not only feed in more cold air, but to use less recirculated air and more outside air to bring the CO2 level down. This eliminates "stuffiness". If the CO level goes up, someone is smoking, fan speeds must rise and dampers dump the return air outside. When the room is empty, do one last air change, then drop to minimum HVAC levels and turn off almost all the lights.)

You can buy all this from Honeywell or Johnson Controls, but it's not well marketed, costs too much, and requires too much engineering during installation. Somebody needs to do an industrial-strength Nest startup.

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

#163

Post by simonk » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:28 AM UTC

s_dev wrote: post #101

This seems much more useful: https://www.lily.camera/ However - I'll wait till the separate approaches are priced accurately before I form an opinion on which is better.

lily only lasts at best 18 minutes.

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

#164

Post by dredmorbius » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 5:01 AM UTC

IanDrake wrote: post #92

danielweber wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't the camera let you track exactly where it is so you can find it?

The transmitter is normally on your arm (above water) to keep a signal with the base. As soon as it goes underwater the signal is lost. They asked me if I had a floaty on it. So I asked them which floaty? The one you didn't include with the product, or the one you don't sell on your website?

Floaties are quite readily available aftermarket. Most boating / marine / rec stores.

Or on this newfangled thing called "The Internet" via "electronic commerce": http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=key%20float&i...

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

#165

Post by vog » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 8:09 AM UTC

hacym wrote: post #131

vog wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To those who downvoted this: Do you care to explain? What's wrong with criticizing overly US-centric business? In the world wide web, being more international should be good for companies as well as customers. Did I miss something?

I think you miss that most people probably don't see this and say "Damn those US companies for using feet." Get over it?

I'm not talking about anti-US sentiment.

I'm talking about people looking at "10-2,000 ft" and asking themselves "Uggh ... how much was it, again?" Then they google for some unit converter. Then they stumble over "5-lbs", google again, but abort the search and decide it is not worth the trouble.

This is simply a bad user experience for the majority of their potential customers.

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

#166

Post by vog » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 8:14 AM UTC

andrewchambers wrote: post #160

vog wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To those who downvoted this: Do you care to explain? What's wrong with criticizing overly US-centric business? In the world wide web, being more international should be good for companies as well as customers. Did I miss something?

I'm from a country which uses Kg and meters. I can read the US units no problem.

I'm also from such a country, and most people I know have trouble with US units, even if their English is pretty good.

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

#167

Post by maximegarcia » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 11:11 AM UTC

radiorental wrote: post #4

No cameraman? No problem 30 minutes later, No camera, problem.

They can have an alarm mode actionable, only the person wearing the tag can approach without triggering an alarm if set ON. That would be pretty neat, and reassuring.

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

#168

Post by IanDrake » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 12:07 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #164

IanDrake wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The transmitter is normally on your arm (above water) to keep a signal with the base. As soon as it goes underwater the signal is lost. They asked me if I had a floaty on it. So I asked them which floaty? The one you didn't include with the product, or the one you don't sell on your website?

Floaties are quite readily available aftermarket. Most boating / marine / rec stores. Or on this newfangled thing called "The Internet" via "electronic commerce": http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=key%20float&i...

I just checked it out! That Internet thing is pretty cool!

However, I saw nothing in your hypertext link that would easily attach to the armband and not interfere with my stroke.

SoloShot should sell a floaty or provide one of those new-fangled affiliate links I hear the kids talking about these days to a compatible 3rd party floaty.

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

#169

Post by IanDrake » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 12:10 PM UTC

coupdejarnac wrote: post #156

IanDrake wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less actually. It will loose tracking on a duck dive and on wipe outs. It even has 'barrel mode' so that the camera will keep tracking on your vector should the signal cut out while you're shielded by the wave lip. Haven't had much use for that feature :(

Maybe you could have a feature that alerts authorities/friends if your tracking device is not detected for X time. In case you get sucked out to sea, eaten by a shark, etc.

In general, I've thought about how many deaths have been captured on film now between GoPros and the like. What a strange and awful thing to leave behind for your loved ones.

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

#170

Post by IanDrake » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 12:23 PM UTC

bitJericho wrote: post #151

IanDrake wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The skier video on the website is just plain bad. The camera should zoom out slowly and smoothly, instead it was jerky.

Yeah, that one is bad. If I had to guess, I'd say that the further away you are, the more the camera is zoomed in, the more jagged the panning will seem, as the distance in one degree of arc at 100ft is much less than 1000ft.

I imagine this could have been easily taken out in post production.