[NSRCA-discussion] Quick question re: cellular data service at the fields where you compete

[Marty King]

Spending the past 23 years in IT and doing scoring at the both the district level and Nats I have to chime in.


I have found, that since I use both a tablet and Iphone for all my communication these days, you can not be 100% sure of a consistent keystroke on a touch screen.  And if you miss just one well placed digit, it distracts you and sets off a lot of unwanted fumbling. Unless the device wrote to a file that could be checked by the judge for correctness prior to being sent over the wireless, there would be a lot of issues. As a point of history we moved off of Scantron sheets at the Nats so we could do several things. One big one was to try and put the judges eyes back on the airplane. Second was to lower the expectation of what scribes, if used, had to do (we were using outside scribes) Then third was to have three eyes checking the data, the judges to make sure the score sheet was filled in completely, the data entry person to input and a data verification person to check the data. 

I think the wireless aspect (especially a secure 2.4 or 5.8) may have some merit, especially if used at the Nats, we could send and import a judges complete score sheet per pilot. A scratch pad would still be used for the raw scoring, but as now, it could be transferred instead to a wireless device instead of a score sheet and sent to the Host scoring PC or server.  This would alleviate the second check of the data at scoring, as no data would actually be keypunched. You also would not need runners and scoring would take place even more timely than it already does now. If any questions would arise (as they do at the Nats) we could go back to the judges scoring pad on site for final verification. Right now we simply pull the score sheet and handle the issue.


We had similar issues with ones writing directly on the Scantron score sheets, not watching the plane, loosing their place.... Before we changed to hand written score sheets in 2005, I went through the 2003 & 2004 Scantron sheets and there were a LOT of errors and NO's on them. 


If the cell system was perfect ( can you hear me now.....) and it isn't by a long shot in many areas of the county, sending individual keystrokes would be a challenge.  

One other system some of you may be aware of is in the field of Education. There are classroom systems out that allow students using handheld clickers (think of a small TV remote) to enter answers in real time. The data is collected and displayed, how many right, how many wrong etc. This is based on both Bluetooth and 2.4 ghz at the present time and prices for systems range from 500.00 up to 2495.00.  The problem still is hitting the correct keys consistently. When testing the first systems in 2005 we had students that said they answered correctly, but the software said otherwise. Either they lied or maybe press the wrong button. There was no way to check, as the clickers do not hold a file, they were real time.

Real time data entry is fast. However, in competition consistency and accuracy is a must, but it is hard to achieve both in real time. You need a way to double check and verify. I know competitors want true and accurate scores. Otherwise, there is no reason to fly in front of judges.

Just a few thoughts,

Marty

D4
NSRCA 2551
AMA 9945 CD LM


Marty King


574-304-5781
56632 Boss Blvd. Elkhart, Indiana 46516


________________________________
 From: Phil S. <chuenkan at comcast.net>
To: General pattern discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> 
Sent: Thursday, December 8, 2011 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Quick question re: cellular data service at the fields where you compete
 

Jim is correct -- I spent the last 10 years of my career studying
driver distraction (for the FHWA) in a driving simulator.  I have said
for a LONG time, that eyes-on-road and hands-on-wheel (with the
"hands-free methods) does NOT mean mind on-driving-task.  I have used
the van Putte method, and it WORKS.  People can NOT multitask, any more
than a single-core CPU can, and while one task is swapped out, it task
will suffer, no matter how short the swap-time is.

On 12/8/2011 12:32 PM, J N Hiller wrote: 
 
>Hear we go
again!
>Keeping 'eyes
on airplane' is of little benefit when the brain's concentration or
thought is
elsewhere. The distraction incurred trying to operate a remote devise
will
likely outweigh the benefits, at least for many of us willing to admit
it. I
find writing numbers in a line along the edge of a clipboard to be the
least distracting.
> 
>Jim
-- 
Phil Spelt, KCRC President
AMA 1294 Scientific Leader Member
SPA 177 Board Member
(865) 435-1476v, (865) 604-0541c
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