The future of WCA competitions?

[gpt_kibutz]

Well, today I was day dreaming and I tought of several ideas that I want to share with you. I have attended to 4 competitions by now, and I have observed several things that if changed would speed up organization a lot.
I think that everyobody will agree with me in my argument: the most boring part of a competition is to help scramble/judge other people. Sometimes you have a mistake in the scramble and have to redo it for example. Another problem is that judges tend to make a lot of mistakes when they write down times and penalties. So, I came out with a possible solution which has to principal aspects. The first aspect is doable and possible, but the second one may not be as easy to accomplish.

So my first idea was to create a machine which would help scramble the cubes. This machine may be connected to the computer in some way, so that one can send the machine the scrambles for each round of the competition. Then, to scramble the cube, you just have to put your cube inside the machine and select the scramble number in the computer. This would be similar to the lego machines that solve the cube, but it will be used to scramble the cubes in an easy, fast and effective way 100% mistake free. The only problem may be that some 3x3 cubes are differently sized (i.e. haiyan memory). It would be nice that the same machine scrambled cubes from 2x2 - 7x7 including square-1 but that would be highly difficult to create. I think this is an idea that can be easily implemented, because building such machine can be even done with legos. (though it would be nice to add some other features to it, such as generating random scrambles etc, so that every cuber has one in their house).

The second idea may be a little crazy, due to the high costs that implementing it would mean. It would be nice to have a little device with a touch screen which communicates with the stackmat timer and automatically reads the time. So, when the competitor finishes solving, the time is displayed in the little device. Then, the judge just has to specify a penalty (if any) and confirm the time with a button (or maybe by scanning a special barcode only judges will have, so that competitors dont cheat in case of +2's). This time will be inmediatly sent to a central computer (which may be the same that controls the scrambling machine) and the averages will be calculated instantly. This device can also be used to monitor other things such as inspection time (by displaying a timer and automatically adding penalties). This way, the judge doesn't have to be the whole time watching the same competitor (specially for people who make 2+ minutes).

Of course, the interaction between all these devices can go even beyond that. For example, when a competitor finishes the first solve, this information is stored. Then, when his cube is going to be scrambled the computer already knows which scramble to apply, without needing someone to select it (avoiding yet more mistakes)

So, these are my ideas, feel free to comment or add any thoughts you may have. I hope that someone someday implements some of these ideas (maybe next year? maybe in japan? xD who knows?)

 

[flan]

They both sound very hard to implement.

 

[PatrickJameson]

These ideas have been suggested quite a few times. There's quite a bit of problems with both of these.

As for the first one, the main problems are as follows. One, you'd need quite a bit of money to develop, create, and produce these scramblers. Two, you'd need to handle cubes that are fragile and pop easily. Three, you'd need to compare the speed of one of these machines to a few scramblers. Or if you have a lot of money, get a lot of these machines. Four, how loud would these machines be? Would it be distracting to the competitors, especially if you have multiple scramble machines going at once?

As for the second one, the main issue is money. I won't even bother going onto the other problems associated with this because these would be insanely expensive for even the highest level competitions to afford.

 

[Kian]

Both of these ideas, while fun, would be ludicrously expensive. The WCA doesn't have any money.

 

[hr.mohr]

Funny, I actually think that the 2nd idea is possible and the cheapest. Possible but not likely to be done.

It's very hard to make a robot that can adjust to the very different puzzles it would experience in competition. Some people have very loose cubes and other very tight cubes. There is different color schemes and also sizes. I would think that the time it takes to load the puzzle in a robot is longer than a human that scrambles the puzzle. Scrambling can and should be optimized but I doubt that it's going to be with a robot.

I'm actually working on some barcode stuff, playing around with generating scorecards with barcodes to make it easier to enter results. Reading results from the stackmat can be done using either OCR on a PDA, interfacing with the data port or simply use manual input.

I think that we will see PDA's used like this in competition long time before we see a robot that are any good.

 

[izovire]

There are so many variables when it comes to constructing a machine that would be effectively capable of scrambling a cube... what if someone's cube breaks? like someone's WR cube... so there might be people that won't trust the machine.

I do like the 2nd idea, and I'm sure a lot of people think about this.

As for funding, it could be possible that $10 could go to WCA instead of $1. But will that money be used for such technology?

 

[Pendragon]

I think that the solutions already used are more efficent that the ones you have puposed... maybe it will be useful that the judges were more trained on how to give the penalities...

 

[qqwref]

A good real scrambler is pretty fast, but also can be delicate or can turn hard if necessary. I think it will be extremely hard to make a machine which is as delicate, strong, and fast as a real person, especially since a human will have to operate the machine to give it cubes, and put the finished cubes on the scrambling table with the appropriate cover/scoresheet. Fortunately, accuracy would not be a problem.

One idea I remember at a California comp was to set up a video camera across from each timing station, and record all solves. Some system could be used to link up the videos to the people who made them (maybe this could be done manually?) and then participants and their parents could pay for a video of all the solves they did. This would make the sport more professional by eliminating the need for audience filming, and by having every record on film. These days cameras and memory aren't outrageously expensive (maybe a few hundred dollars for a good camcorder, maybe a hundred more for enough memory) and if you charged something like $5-$10 per person for videos it might be possible to make back the money after some competitions. Or you could just add it into the cost of a huge endeavor like Worlds, and then keep using those cameras for local competitions in the future.

 

[ben1996123]

I've thought about the first one before, but I like scrambling at competitions, even if Joey has to remind me to scramble white top green front...

Would be cool to have my own though

 

[blakedacuber]

i agree with ben scrambling is fun

 

[Lucas Garron]

Much more realistic is the use of smartphones of competition organizers, which don't cost any additional money. I believe we're looking into at least one use of them for US Nationals 2011.

 

[collinbxyz]

The first one may be done, except not as complicated. It would cost a ton, but it would be a good idea.

 

[HelpCube]

There are so many variables when it comes to constructing a machine that would be effectively capable of scrambling a cube... what if someone's cube breaks? like someone's WR cube... so there might be people that won't trust the machine.

I do like the 2nd idea, and I'm sure a lot of people think about this.

As for funding, it could be possible that $10 could go to WCA instead of $1. But will that money be used for such technology?

I think this is a good idea. The cubing at competitions is very cheap, and I think the WCA should be raising money, possibly a fee for becoming a wca member? lets toss around some ideas, shall we?

 

[Rpotts]

Personally i think that charging to become a member would limit the number of new competitors. Some locals might hear about the event, consider going, but then change their mind specifically because they'd have to pay additional fees. We shouldn't limit the number of new competitors or competitors/comp.

 

[JBCM627]

Much more realistic is the use of smartphones of competition organizers, which don't cost any additional money. I believe we're looking into at least one use of them for US Nationals 2011.

In particular, Bryan might be working on a competition manager app for Droid. Which would be pretty cool, and hopefully useful. Another idea is scrambles on such devices.

I also have a web-app which could be used for data entry at competitions, but I need to finish a couple more things before I'd consider using it or making it public. One of these is a judge interface, where a judge could (only) input times directly into the system through a mobile device (phone, laptop, pad/tab, etc). I may try to use it at a competition soon, if I can finish the last few things. I'm hoping it will be quite a bit less prone to error on the part of data entry people than workbooks.

Personally i think that charging to become a member would limit the number of new competitors.

A $1/competitor/competition fee is already assessed in the US (note: this is not necessarily $1/competitor). $10/competitor/competition would be pretty steep.

 

[Rpotts]

Right i know, but that's just part of the entry fee for the comp itself. I'm talking about if you had to pay 10$ additional to get a wca profile, which is necessary to compete.

 

[gpt_kibutz]

That sounds absurd to me (to charge money for a profile). Also maybe the use of these new technologies may be up to the organizers and not to the WCA board