4 ms·
My phone replaced a brass plug
- RyJones 6mo agoMy USPSA rank is public: I'm terrible with pistols. I haven't shot in competition for over a decade. This is the kind of project that tickles a couple of my nerves and might get me back to the range.
- HoldOnAMinute 6mo agoWasn't sure what to expect when I clicked this link.
- donglebix 6mo agoThis ... Is beautiful
- teiferer 6mo agoOf all the things one can automate in this whole journey - he chose the ring counting on the shooting range? I don't get it. I totally see the programming challenge there, but it's in no substantial way making the journey any easier. Any somewhat working human brain can count this quite quickly and then move on with other things. Really, I don't get it.
- jagged-chisel 6mo agoNow that the software exists, one can use it from a mounted camera and provide immediate scoring. No need to wait for the human and the target to be in proximity.
- valzevul 6mo agoCounting rings is easy indeed, but scoring borderline shots without a scoring gauge is not, because the visible bullet hole is often smaller than the bullet itself.
- teiferer 5mo agoBut why would he care about this millimeter precision? His objective is not to participate in the Olympics but to shoot deer. He wants to improve general shooting abilities, not sub-millimeter accuracy. If he now and then counts a ring wrong, then what's the problem? That's what I don't get.
- Ancapistani 5mo ago> His objective is not to participate in the Olympics but to shoot deer. Where do you see that? The article is about someone in Scotland who took up marksmanship as a hobby.
- teiferer 5mo agoThe article literally starts with "I wanted to cook venison from scratch, which meant learning to shoot"
- Ancapistani 5mo agoMaybe it’s just that I identify so strongly with the author in that way, then - I saw that, but didn’t see it as a rationale for the rest of the article. It was just “here’s the path that led to my picking up marksmanship as an interest”.
- valzevul 5mo agoNo, that's fair (OP here) - I went to the range to learn how to hold the rifle in the first place, but indoor shooting with .22 from 25 yards in a stiff shooting jacket is as far from shooting a deer with .243 as it gets, so I stayed for the fun of it and the community around it. I would definitely get to the point of stalking deer faster if I were to book a few 1-1 sessions at an outdoor range instead, but "faster" was never the point.
- krisoft 5mo ago> Where do you see that? There are multiple mentions of him being motivated by wanting to shoot deer for meat. It is a through line via the article. > The article is about someone in Scotland who took up marksmanship as a hobby. I wish it were so. With a bit more self awareness the author could have said “initially picked up a rifle to learn to hunt deer, but doing so i learned how targets are scored and become interested in automating that process.” There is nothing wrong with that. But pretending that someone is doing all this coding to get better charcuterie is where it becomes frustrating yak shaving.
- rmunn 5mo agoBecause he kept hitting his head on the low ceiling beams as he walked over to look at his target. If he had been shooting at an outdoor range, or even an indoor range with a higher ceiling, he probably wouldn't have been pushed to automate the process.
- jfengel 6mo agoScoring is based on the outermost ring, rather than the innermost ring? Huh. I'd have expected it to be based on the center, but I guess the goal is "it must be entirely within this ring to count" rather than just "I hit this ring".
- valzevul 5mo agoI think it depends on the discipline, NSRA .22 in the post uses the outermost edge, but ISSF (Olympic rifle/pistol, for example) uses the innermost edge.
- scrumper 5mo agoIsn't .22 a bit small for deer? I don't know anything though, so this isn't an informed objection just a question. Or were you just learning fundamentals of shooting before trying a bigger caliber?
- butlike 5mo agoI was thinking the same thing.
- valzevul 5mo agoAye, I think most people use something like .243 for stalking, but the closest range was indoors, so I didn’t have much choice. My goal was to get a deer stalking certificate (e.g DSC1), which includes a shooting test: 2 chest shots at 100m from prone, 2 chest shots at 70m from standing/kneeling/sitting, and 2 head shots from 10-20m standing (they use cardboard deer targets, so not far from training at a range).
- _carbyau_ 5mo agoFor comment reading edification, there are already electronic scoring targets for shooting.[0] They use wave detection from each corner - either air/sound or via the target backing - to triangulate and with modern electronics can be quite accurate. It's nice from an audience point of view to be able to see the results of each shot almost immediately. Kinda like watching snooker championships. This approach is novel however and has other pros and cons. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_scoring_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_scoring_system
- wakawaka28 5mo agoThere are also targets with fluorescent backgrounds and special black paint that flakes off near the holes. There is a limit to how many holes you can see in the target but it is way better than plain paper.
- sandworm101 5mo ago>> .22 bullet is 0.22" across (duh) Um... No. An american 22 can be very slightly smaller. American-invented calibers are measured to the depth of the grooves in a rifled barrel. The rest of the world measures to the flat parts between the grooves. So no, it is not obvious how wide a bullet is. And beware the plural. If someone (usually a salty navy person) says that a gun is "50 calibers" he means something completely different than a "50 caliber". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliber
- gweinberg 5mo agoYeah, given the nominal precision it's surprising how far off some of the numbers are. A .38 is the same diameter as a .357.
- rootusrootus 5mo ago> A .38 is the same diameter as a .357. Not just diameter, the bullet itself is identical. The cartridge is longer with more powder in a .357, which makes it a good bit more powerful in practice (2 to 3 times as much energy). The explanation for the caliber discrepancy is halfway interesting: "Despite its name, the caliber of the .38 Special cartridge is actually .357 inches (36 caliber/9.07 mm), with the ".38" referring to the approximate diameter of the loaded brass case. This came about because the original 38-caliber cartridge, the .38 Short Colt, was designed for use in converted .36-caliber cap-and-ball Navy revolvers, which had untapered cylindrical firing chambers of approximately 0.374-inch (9.5 mm) diameter that required heeled bullets, the exposed portion of which was the same diameter as the cartridge case." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.38_Special https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.38_Special
- qball 5mo agoLegacy and marketing have as much to do with it as local variations in how bores are actually measured do. All the .38s and 9mms of the world are just slight variations on .36" round ball, .44 caliber pistols are generally .429", there's a .45" pistol caliber labelled .460 (.454 also counts), .50 BMG is actually .510", calibers claimed to be "7.62mm" use either a .308" or .311" projectile depending on the country of origin and sometimes not even then (France and Switzerland call this size 7.5mm, Argentina called this 7.65mm, Japan called it 7.7mm, the British called it .303), "8mm" can be either a .318" or .323" projectile, .32s are all .312" diameter, but one cartridge that uses this same projectile labels it as .30 and another .327. The same 5.7mm projectile (.224") is used in cartridges that claim to have a diameter of .220, .221, .222, .223, .224, .225, 5.6mm, 5.56mm, and 5.7mm. .277" projectiles are used in cartridges that call themselves 6.8mm, .270, .277; same thing with .284" projectiles used in cartridges that call themselves 7mm and .280.
- jmpman 5mo agoI've been building a similar piece of software but with vibe coding. It's to the point that I'm using gauge blocks to measure the precise scoring ring dimensions and then using various warping techniques to get the photo to map precisely. In a weekend I've been able to get it to sub pixel accuracy.
- beto_carreto 5mo ago[flagged]
- thisumang 5mo agoThe title is so bad, can't understand what's it about. Atleast around other topics here.
- saaaaaam 5mo agoNo, it’s a great title. It was curious enough that I clicked and then I read the whole thing. It’s unlikely I would have done that if it had been something like “Using computer vision to score rifle shooting cards”.
- duozerk 5mo agoIn other words it's a great clickbait title, yet still a bad title.
- seszett 5mo agoI wouldn't say that. The current title indicates that the article is likely written in a less clinical manner than an article called "Using computer vision to score rifle shooting cards" would have been.
- lucb1e 5mo agoThanks for that, now I know I don't care about the contents before clicking. Misleading titles (something about smartphones and metals?) is why people open comments before reading the article
- greg_dc 5mo agoClickbait is where the title leads you to believe the article is more interesting than it is. I'd argue this was the opposite of that.
- satvikpendem 5mo agoWould you call titles of other media click bait too, like 1984 or Gone with the wind? Sometimes an article doesn't have to have a literal title, sometimes it's an artistic decision to have a more vague title that nevertheless relates to the media.
- spockz 5mo agoA very nice read and surprising ending. Love the perseverance of the research and the cleanliness of the app.
- xg15 5mo ago> I wanted to cook venison from scratch, which meant learning to shoot, which meant keeping track of my progress, which meant porting a 2012 OpenCV paper and training a state-of-the-art computer vision model, which meant the dinner took a bit longer than expected. Procrastination level: Ultimate
- mcc1ane 5mo agoyak shaving
- pjc50 5mo agoYup. Or deer shaving, in this case. The punchline is he never actually got round to shooting a deer. I do think he understated the difficulty of the hunt itself. He's planning to use the "supervision" rule to avoid needing his own firearm license, and male deer are indeed unlicensed for shooting (but not female deer!). Then you have to find one. He's right that they have reached "pest" status, since humans killed off the wolves. Every now and again someone suggests reintroducing the wolves, to cull the deer (and occasional tourists). The open terrain (because the deer eat saplings) can make it easier. I have a great photo somewhere of a single majestic deer which I just happened to see from the road when I had my telephoto lens with me and mounted on the camera. I've even once seen a deer in Edinburgh itself, along a railway cutting.
- mkesper 5mo agoWolves are back to continental Europe. Takes some time to get everyone to accommodate again. Breeders are not amused.
- Tangurena2 5mo agoOr a Carl Sagan fan: > If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. From episode 9 of his Cosmos TV series. https://kottke.org/23/11/if-you-wish-to-make-an-apple-pie-from-scratch-you-must-first-invent-the-universe https://kottke.org/23/11/if-you-wish-to-make-an-apple-pie-fr... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Personal_Voyage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Personal_Voyage There were a number of "history of technology & invention" TV series, all inspired by Connections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(British_TV_series)# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(British_TV_series...
- ErroneousBosh 5mo ago> Best gourmet pastries this side of the pond (and they also do doughnuts!). Haha no, not even close. Saddler's Forfar Bridies take that prize.
- pjc50 5mo agoThat has to have been an intentional joke; Greggs' aren't good, just cheap and ubiquitous, and almost any proper hand-made-on-site bakery will beat them.
- valzevul 5mo agoWith all due respect, driving past Dundee every time I fancy a wee pasty is a bit too much (and they don't do doughnuts).
- f055 5mo agoThis read is amazing and the development work is very impressive, great job and congrats! That said, my 20-30yo self would end at that. However, my 40yo+ self has a piece of wisdom here: the brass plugs are there for a reason: they slow things down. Technocracy (screens, apps, automation) is not good for our mental health. Human minds need small, calm, slow, manual processes. Like plugging the brass plugs.
- adammarples 5mo agoIf you always count borderline shots as in, or out, then you will be consistent enough to help you track the only thing that matters, your progress.
- greg_dc 5mo agoHuh! Fellow Edinburgh resident here. I had no idea there was a rifle range here.
- thinkingemote 5mo agoThere are quite a few around the country but they are literally underground. You generally fire the guns in a tunnel.
- valzevul 5mo agoThere are a few outdoor ranges around Edinburgh but they focus on clay shooting and shotguns. I think there are one or two rifle ranges in town but they only accept students. The one I went to is indoors, although not a tunnel but a Nissen hut [1]. -- [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissen_hut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissen_hut
- blacklion 5mo agoI like author's style / voice. Very soothing, very humane. Is it is consistent for old posts too, I hope it is not LLM :)
- monarchkumar 5mo agoAmazing app, can we get it on Android pretty please.