TimeBase - the future of competitions

[Samuel Baird]

Timebase is a new timer display being developed by Calvin Nielson and Dan Pastushkov which will allow competitions to run faster and better! It allows competitions to run without scorecards which means no more DNFs due to missing signatures, no more badge judge handwriting, no more lost scorecards, etc. It is also setup to make it impossible to receive duplicate scrambles and to get a DNF if you reset your timer after completing your solve!

It also allows results to be entered live! Meaning that as soon as their solve is done, it will be on WCA live, even if they haven’t finished their average!

It also allows incidents to be more easily recorded by delegates through the use of an app.

An FAQ document can be found here, please read it if you have questions before commenting on the thread.

Check out the video showcase here:

 

[CoderGuru]

Timebase is a new timer display being developed by Calvin Nielson and Dan Pastushkov which will allow competitions to run faster and better! It allows competitions to run without scorecards which means no more DNFs due to missing signatures, no more badge judge handwriting, no more lost scorecards, etc. It is also setup to make it impossible to receive duplicate scrambles and to get a DNF if you reset your timer after completing your solve!

It also allows results to be entered live! Meaning that as soon as their solve is done, it will be on WCA live, even if they haven’t finished their average!

It also allows incidents to be more easily recorded by delegates through the use of an app.

An FAQ document can be found here, please read it if you have questions before commenting on the thread.

Check out the video showcase here:

Looks really good. I guess if this gets integrated into small competitions and slowly grows, it could be a potential for very large competition in the future. The hardest barrier will be I think convincing delegates who are very comfortable with the tradition method to stop and I couldn’t help but think about problems that may happen with the cards, e.g. creating and keeping safe. Also, isn’t it possible that if the delegates app account gets hacked, the competition results can be skewed? However overall a very good idea, filling a gap in cubing innovation which I honestly hadn’t thought of

 

[An Animating Cuber]

I left a comment on the video with some concerns

 

[Samuel Baird]

Looks really good. I guess if this gets integrated into small competitions and slowly grows, it could be a potential for very large competition in the future. The hardest barrier will be I think convincing delegates who are very comfortable with the tradition method to stop and I couldn’t help but think about problems that may happen with the cards, e.g. creating and keeping safe. Also, isn’t it possible that if the delegates app account gets hacked, the competition results can be skewed? However overall a very good idea, filling a gap in cubing innovation which I honestly hadn’t thought of

As a delegate, I would be much more comfortable with this system than the current system as soon as it can be demonstrated to work without any serious flaws. There are far fewer places for errors to be made using a system like TimeBase

 

[CoderGuru]

As a delegate, I would be much more comfortable with this system than the current system as soon as it can be demonstrated to work without any serious flaws. There are far fewer places for errors to be made using a system like TimeBase

Yeah. I just thought that some people would be very picky about this, as not everyone is open to change, especially technology (sounds cliche but I feel like it might happen)

 

[ProStar]

What would the cost be for switching to this?

 

[gsingh]

Timebase is a new timer display being developed by Calvin Nielson and Dan Pastushkov which will allow competitions to run faster and better! It allows competitions to run without scorecards which means no more DNFs due to missing signatures, no more badge judge handwriting, no more lost scorecards, etc. It is also setup to make it impossible to receive duplicate scrambles and to get a DNF if you reset your timer after completing your solve!

It also allows results to be entered live! Meaning that as soon as their solve is done, it will be on WCA live, even if they haven’t finished their average!

It also allows incidents to be more easily recorded by delegates through the use of an app.

An FAQ document can be found here, please read it if you have questions before commenting on the thread.

Check out the video showcase here:

This is first being tested at BASC 54 in November, which I will be staffing at. I'm very excited to see how it goes!

 

[UncleFrank]

Projected cost?
Yeah, I see the FAQ says cheaper than a speedstacks display, but how many thousands and thousands of speedstacks displays are already out there in use? and they would all need to be replaced.

 

[Samuel Baird]

Projected cost?
Yeah, I see the FAQ says cheaper than a speedstacks display, but how many thousands and thousands of speedstacks displays are already out there in use? and they would all need to be replaced.

Not every single speedstacks/qiyi display would need to be replaced. The regulations would ideally be updated to continue allowing competitions to be run with scorecards, while also allowing for TimeBase to be used.

 

[quanloh]

Perhaps a small battery powered "pass-through" unit between the timer and the display will be more feasible at current stage? with it being a table top device, DNF, all the +2, NFC for participant & referee confirmation can be done with a small LED matrix display and a num pad, would that be more cost effective?

 

[fischie]

Maybe rather than making device with built-in display, make only proxy box with buttons, NFC and WiFi. This device may be cheaper, and allows to reuse existing display devices. But probably you will be limited what you can output on such external display.

 

[Spencer131]

Related post: https://www.speedsolving.com/threads/wca-hardware-team-idea.90625/

@abunickabhi you might find this interesting

 

[Tabe]

I am super excited for this. The demo at Nats was great and a ton of thought has gone into it. I especially like that the system shows you only the scramble you're actually doing, to prevent misscrambles. I've got concerns but I immediately messaged Calvin to volunteer to be a test lab here in Spokane for the system. Cannot wait to read the delegate report for BASC 54.

And how exciting is this system? Lars Petrus, after 10 years, is coming out of retirement to try it. And WCA founder Tyson Mao will be there, too.

 

[quanloh]

Super confident the next speedstack display will have these feature added in after this show case.

 

[ender9994]

What are the review processes being used for the software development to ensure accuracy and minimize bugs?

Seems like a great all in one system if it can be implemented well. Though with that many features I suspect it will take lots or testing/iterations until it is streamlined enough for competition.

 

[Tabe]

Super confident the next speedstack display will have these feature added in after this show case.

There is basically zero chance of that happening. Speedstacks doesn't care about cubing at all.

 

[OtaMota]

We should be pushing away from speedstacking.

 

[abunickabhi]

Related post: https://www.speedsolving.com/threads/wca-hardware-team-idea.90625/

@abunickabhi you might find this interesting

Yes, this post was made by me, haha!

 

[Gecko777]

Timebase is a new timer display being developed by Calvin Nielson and Dan Pastushkov which will allow competitions to run faster and better! It allows competitions to run without scorecards which means no more DNFs due to missing signatures, no more badge judge handwriting, no more lost scorecards, etc. It is also setup to make it impossible to receive duplicate scrambles and to get a DNF if you reset your timer after completing your solve!

It also allows results to be entered live! Meaning that as soon as their solve is done, it will be on WCA live, even if they haven’t finished their average!

It also allows incidents to be more easily recorded by delegates through the use of an app.

An FAQ document can be found here, please read it if you have questions before commenting on the thread.

Check out the video showcase here:

if the scrambles can only be applied one scram at a time that would be very slow

 

[Samuel Baird]

if the scrambles can only be applied one scram at a time that would be very slow

Tapping a NFC chip on a scanner is probably faster than signing, but even if it is slightly slower than those delays will be made up for at the competition stations since the need to write times and sign are completely eliminated.