# Competition Inspection Tool



## Lucas Garron (Aug 5, 2014)

I couldn't sleep on the night before US Nationals, so I made: cubing.net/inspection/

This tool is intended to be used on a smartphone as an alternative to stopwatches for the judge (e.g. if there aren't stopwatches, or if the judge prefers). In particular, it displays the current number of seconds of inspection very clearly, and uses color changes to cue the announcements at 8 and 12 seconds.

I used it to judge solves all weekend, and it worked pretty well.
In fact, it worked better than usual: I used to forget to announce the 8-second mark once in a while, but I believe I only missed it once during this entire competition.





























I want to keep it simple, but I'm certainly open to improvements. Odder already contributed a fix!
I'm already considering a small screen flash at 8 and 12 seconds, but I don't want it to be much more intrusive than the current color change.


----------



## Coolster01 (Aug 5, 2014)

sweet!


----------



## Chree (Aug 5, 2014)

Me gusta. I'm sure this will be very helpful. I take it there aren't any regulatory restraints to using this?


----------



## Lucas Garron (Aug 5, 2014)

Chree said:


> I take it there aren't any regulatory restraints to using this?


It's a stopwatch, so I certainly don't see any problems.


----------



## AmazingCuber (Aug 5, 2014)

Really nice job! Thanks for this awesome tool!


----------



## slinky773 (Aug 5, 2014)

I will definitely be using this at Indiana 2014. Thank you! It works great


----------



## Sa967St (Aug 5, 2014)

Love this. I'll definitely be using it for judging.


----------



## RicardoRix (Aug 5, 2014)

005


First one to get 1.337.


----------



## G2013 (Aug 5, 2014)

It doesn't work on my PC...


----------



## TDM (Aug 5, 2014)

G2013 said:


> It doesn't work on my PC...


Did you press space?


----------



## G2013 (Aug 5, 2014)

xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Stupid me
I can't believe that I missed that DD


----------



## TDM (Aug 5, 2014)

G2013 said:


> xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
> Stupid me
> I can't believe that I missed that DD


I did too, it took me a while to find that. I clicked it a few times first and nothing happened.


----------



## Lucas Garron (Sep 20, 2014)

Just updated this, with some help from Jeremy.

In particular:


Letting go of the first tap always starts the timer now.
The milliseconds are not cut off on Android devices.

If anyone is still having issues, let me know.


----------



## Prakhar (Sep 20, 2014)

Just a suggestion. If you could make to play a recorded voice on 8 and 12 seconds to notify the solver. Then, the judge could focus on inspection rather than focusing on the timer.
Also, make it till 17 seconds.

Overall, an innovative idea.


----------



## Lucas Garron (Sep 20, 2014)

Prakhar said:


> Just a suggestion. If you could make to play a recorded voice on 8 and 12 seconds to notify the solver. Then, the judge could focus on inspection rather than focusing on the timer.



I've talked about this a bit, and there are a few reasons not to do it. Firstly, the Regulations specify that the judge says these times, and I don't think we should bend this rule without precedent. There are also issues with phone volume, muting (it's usually good to mute phones at a competition), translation, times being announced after the competitor has started the solve before the judge stops the timer, competitors knowing *which* phone is addressing them, less forced interaction from the judge (possibly resulting in *less* focus), etc.
Similar issues also apply to vibrating the phone.

The main point of this tool is to make it easier for judges to do their current job, and the visual cues are already make it easier to call out times (even if the timer is in their peripheral vision).

That said, anyone is welcome to try it. (Please ask your Delegate before using it to judge, though.)



Prakhar said:


> Also, make it till 17 seconds.


I'm not sure what you mean with this. The timer continues until 17 seconds (and beyond).


----------



## UnsolvedCypher (Oct 1, 2014)

This tool is awesome - I will definitely be using it to judge at my next competition! However, why do you allow the timer to go past 17? I think after 17 it should turn a dark color (black?) and just say DNF.


----------



## Lucas Garron (Oct 1, 2014)

UnsolvedCypher said:


> This tool is awesome - I will definitely be using it to judge at my next competition! However, why do you allow the timer to go past 17? I think after 17 it should turn a dark color (black?) and just say DNF.



Because it's "just a tool": a timer. It gives visual cues, but doesn't do anything on the judge's behalf.

For one, the judge may want to know *how* much the time went over 17 seconds, in case they didn't start/stop the timer perfectly on time. Or maybe there was an incident. (As an added bonus, it also works as a general-purpose timer in case someone needs that.)

I also want this to be as simple as possible. I could add another line (or maybe replace the milliseconds?) to show "+2" after 15 seconds and "DNF" after 17, but I'd rather not. The dark red is already an indicator, and the judge still needs to know how to do their job.

You're welcome to try anything you want, though. Just download the source and tinker with wca-inspection.js.


----------



## Carrot (Oct 1, 2014)

Prakhar said:


> Just a suggestion. If you could make to play a recorded voice on 8 and 12 seconds to notify the solver. Then, the judge could focus on inspection rather than focusing on the timer.
> Also, make it till 17 seconds.
> 
> Overall, an innovative idea.



If you have the phone screen in sight, but focus on the solver you should still be able to notice when the screen blinks. (At least this is how it works for me)

Lucas: I have been trying to convince people that this is a good idea, but for some reason they don't see the need for actually looking at the competitor starting the timer/doing their inspection at all. Do you have any cool ideas of how I can share this tool with fellow judges without making them think I'm a complete ******? (I don't really feel like sharing it much more when that's the reaction I get)


----------



## cubizh (Oct 1, 2014)

This is a great concept but if this application is to be used widely I think there needs to be some kind of assurance that it works 99.9% of the time you are using it, which being run in a browser window, unfortunately does not happen by default in smartphones.
It should require that it doesn't get interrupted by a phone call, low battery warnings, screen light timeout, message notices and all kinds of events smartphones receive these days that could disrupt the timing.
I think the next step for it to be better accepted and more widely used is to make it an android app.


----------



## Prakhar (Oct 1, 2014)

Lucas Garron said:


> I'm not sure what you mean with this. The timer continues until 17 seconds (and beyond).


 I meant to say that after 17, it automatically becomes DNF.


----------

