Our App Of The Day – sprintTimer
Kaiser & Kaiser today introduces sprintTimer 1.0 for iPhone 4 and 3Gs, their photo finish app that employs the same techniques used in the Olympics. Start the timer and point the camera towards the finish line. sprintTimer will build an image of narrow slices of the finish line, each representing 0.03 seconds in time. Users can then scroll along the photo to get the time when each competitor crossed the finish line with 0.01 s resolution. The app also includes a motion controlled lap timer.
As our App of the Day, all our regular readers know the trailer for this app will feature on every page of our site for a whole day. Just scroll to the bottom of this page to take a look.
Operation of sprintTimer in the Photo Finish mode involves a simple setup procedure. The app functions in portrait orientation, and the user must first choose the direction of the race, moving across the screen from left to right or vice versa. Next, the user has three choices of how to start the camera: Motion, Manual, and Time. Motion starts the camera automatically upon detection of motion in a selected field of view. Manual permits the user to push a button to start the camera seconds before the race is won. And Time automatically starts the camera a predetermined number of seconds after the timer is started. The recording may be set to run for two, four, or six seconds. Longer record times would require more memory and processing power than the iPhone 4 currently offers.
An alignment guide allows placement of the camera centered over the finish line. Once still image recording starts, the camera takes a succession of pictures. Each picture is a small vertical slice of the entire frame, so that each picture is 100% tall but only 10 – 20% wide. The final horizontally scrollable image is a composite of many slices that together form a single, wide image. The width of each slice is user adjustable to obtain optimal results under varying conditions. The Mark button will insert a thin vertical line anywhere along the finished photo, so as the user scrolls horizontally, they may mark and display on a digital readout the exact finish time for each runner.
Since sprintTimer relies on a manual start, it cannot be used to set any official records. However, it offers far greater accuracy and versatility than the best digital stopwatch. All recordings may be saved or deleted. sprintTimer can be used for athletics, horse racing, greyhound racing, cycling, speed skating, car racing, rowing, etc.
sprintTimer has several advantages over a manual stopwatch:
* One person can time several runners, cars, etc.
* Higher accuracy than a stopwatch
* Easier to determine the order of finishers
* Gives the time difference between competitors with high accuracy
* The image and the results can be saved
* Can operate "hands free" when started
"sprintTimer will surprise coaches, athletes, and sports enthusiasts with its remarkable versatility," stated company Owner, Sten Kaiser. "Easy to setup and operate, its comparable to carrying a large, expensive photo finish camera in your pocket."
Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch (video camera equipped)
* Compatible with iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPod touch 4
* iOS 4.0 or later
* 0.5 MB
Pricing and Availability:
sprintTimer 1.0 is $0.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Sports category. You can download it here.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
