About a month ago, we announced that Sweepstakes and the Buggy Alumni Association had teamed up to select and fund a new and improved timing system for buggy. We are renting the system for an extended period this year so that we have time to thoroughly test it in the buggy context and make sure that it is better than the old system.
The system arrived over spring break, and yesterday evening, we learned how to assemble the hardware and operate the software. The results were an excellent start. Both the hardware and software have a definite learning curve, but in a couple of hours we had the whole system unpacked, set up, and recording timed photo-finishes. The picture at right shows my dog Ruby edging BAA president Carsen Kline at the finish by 0.28 seconds after a 43 second race around the back yard. The quality of the images will improve in our real implementation as we learn which lens is most appropriate, and do things when it’s not getting dark out.
We are planning on doing our next test (this time with real buggy finishes) at freerolls on the weekend of March 27th and 28th. Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed financially to the Buggy Alumni Association in our first 18 months. Being able to materially improve the buggy experience for both current students and alumni is really exciting.