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BGonline.org Forums
transcription program is coming--sorry for the wait--sorry Michelle
Posted By: Phil Simborg
Date: Friday, 19 February 2016, at 7:50 p.m.
When I first announced that we will be selling a program that automatically takes the game from the board into XG several months ago, I thought the release would be coming soon. I also wanted to get feedback as to what people wanted from the program in terms of features.
The delay is NOT because we are having problems getting the program to work...we have a working model, and it works perfectly. The delay is we want to have a program that is absolutely perfect before we bring it to market and also handles human error well. That is the biggest problem...what to do if the humans move illegally, or their hands cover up the dice or checkers so the move and position can't be picked up. We have pretty much solved that by a beep and light that warns the players, but of course, if the players insist on making an illegal move anyway, not much we can do..it simply won't transcribe properly.
We have also added a clock to the program, built in, as that is a part of major tournaments and we believe will continue to be the trend....even if you don't use a clock, punching the clock when the move is over is a way to tell our software to enter the position now on the board. And as many have seen, playing with one set of dice and a clock (even if you don't have the clock running) is a better way to play backgammon...eliminates fast rolling and disputes about what the roll was if a player makes a move and then picks up his dice. Of course, one set of dice is also good to help prevent putting in loaded dice or one player having the "hot dice."
We expect to have several people beta testing in the next few months and once we are sure it is working perfectly, we will be offering the product for sale to the world. It will include a camera, stand, clock, and software, so that the game goes immediately into XG if you have a computer handy, and if not, it will go into a memory stick that you can insert into XG.
This will put Michelle and her friends out of business, but then Michelle can concentrate more on her game and turn into a star player...I hope to help her to compensate for taking her job away.
We still don't know what the program will sell for...not sure of what our costs will be, but the hardware costs are minimal...it's more about getting back our development costs and making a reasonable profit. I know many would gladly pay a lot to have their games immediately analyzed, and it sure would be a fun thing to have in a chouette...we might have a side bet on every play (some will hate this, so don't do it!). I can see my chouette of the future where we bet on the games, bet on plays, and bet on PR, and everything is settled immediately. And everything is recorded.
In addition to this program, we will have some other backgammon products and surprises that I am sure will rock the backgammon world. Stay tuned. We are working hard and very busy and you will all see some amazing new stuff soon.
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