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My robotic basketball hoop won't let you miss [video]

251 points| o10449366 | 5 years ago |youtube.com | reply

52 comments

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[+] TimMeade|5 years ago|reply
One of the best self projects i've ever seen. I hope he is being mentoring somewhere to take advantage. This guy could be the next Jony Ive.

But why windows? Realtime OS needed badly.

[+] ChuckNorris89|5 years ago|reply
He's using python for the Kinect image processing and balistics math so it's easy to implement in windows. If you move to a RTOS you lose these luxuries.
[+] ballenf|5 years ago|reply
I assumed it was related to the Kinect usage.
[+] natch|5 years ago|reply
I was thinking more Woz than Jony but yes very good engineering going on here, for a casual side project.
[+] randyrand|5 years ago|reply
Kinect V2 only has drivers for windows.
[+] dkryptr|5 years ago|reply
It seems this thread and all of the comments are a windows-hate circle jerk.
[+] globular-toast|5 years ago|reply
Even Linux would be a vast improvement. This guy needs a friend to help him port the code to a better platform.
[+] gpvos|5 years ago|reply
"My head is never gonna be following a ballistic trajectory.. I hope not, at least" - he should have inserted a second shot of his annoyed wife after that.
[+] iso1631|5 years ago|reply
This should be mandatory viewing for every high school class -- finally an answer to everyone asking "when will I ever need to use a quadratic equation in real life"
[+] xwdv|5 years ago|reply
This could have some practical use for trash cans so people can just throw away trash from across the room.
[+] jrockway|5 years ago|reply
I'm impressed at how this guy's channel has taken off. The first version of this (a static backboard optimized to put as many shots into the hoop as possible) was posted here, and he had something like a few hundred subscribers and a few hundred views. That video now has 4M views and he has 82k subscribers. He deserves the subscribers, as the rest of his videos are great, but I'm curious as to which medium got the most viewers. HN? (Seems unlikely to me.) Reddit? Twitter? The Algorithm?
[+] TechBro8615|5 years ago|reply
I saw his original post on Reddit in some “normie “ subs (NBA?). His channel was quite new at the time. Lots of traffic probably boosted him in the algorithm.

It’s great to see, too, because his content is awesome!

[+] pimlottc|5 years ago|reply
This is a sweet project, but what's really awesome is how clearly he explains the whole thing, from hardware to software.

I'm also really impressed at the way that he uses the tablet to quickly and interactively generate diagrams in (mostly) real time while speaking. Sure, he could make a "cleaner" animation but doing it this way is just as effective and probably saves a ton of time.

[+] srean|5 years ago|reply
I would have loved to take a look at the code. I had the same reaction when his previous baseboard project hit HN.

Leaving this other reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_manipulator Inverse kinematics of parallel manipulators for the general case can get really hairy

[+] agustif|5 years ago|reply
A few weeks ago there was a similar project, only that it was more analog as in the guy 3d printed an oval shaped hoop, so at every-angle it would go in, not as techno as this one, but more cool if you ask me
[+] donatj|5 years ago|reply
Couldn’t you start moving to roughly where it needs to be off the initial calculations and correct it over time to make the motion less violent?
[+] roland35|5 years ago|reply
Very cool project! I am impressed by a how fast this was created too!

what a great workshop! And how did he get his hands on that CNC machine? Is it only for personal projects or also for freelancing?

[+] floatrock|5 years ago|reply
"It was super cheap... it cost like $5 in sheet metal"

Not accounted for: industrial plasma cutter, welder, sheet metal bender, 3D printer, CNC mill to cut ball joints...

[+] exabrial|5 years ago|reply
When he says something like "600 milliseconds is not a lot of time", what is the limiting factor? Is it the sampling rate of sensor input (video)?
[+] pletsch|5 years ago|reply
Assuming it's the time from when he shoots to when it arrives at the backboard
[+] ncmncm|5 years ago|reply
He explains it right there, only seconds later: after 600 ms, the ball is at the basket, and it is too late to do anything. He has less time than that, because he also has to move the backboard into place, and stop it, because if it were still moving, that would bounce the ball somewhere else.

It would be seriously cool to use the speed of motion of the backboard to get extra control and, e.g., need to move it less.

But that would take a hard real-time system, and be correspondingly more fun.

[+] gpvos|5 years ago|reply
After each shot you need image recognition to recognize the balls, and you need several shots to get the trajectory. At the other end, you need time to move the board into position.
[+] mthwsjc_|5 years ago|reply
wow. this is amazing. so much work
[+] aidenn0|5 years ago|reply
I wonder if large amounts of spin will cause it to miss?

[edit]

At very end it says it doesn't account for spin.

[+] geerlingguy|5 years ago|reply
Detecting spin on the ball would require much better (more, and more consistent through the flight path) lighting and camera resolution, or modified balls (with still better lighting, most likely) with markings that provide enough contrast to be able to calculate spin.
[+] batesy|5 years ago|reply
This guy is smarter than me.
[+] benraskin92|5 years ago|reply
Shaq could've used this! Awesome project!
[+] clairity|5 years ago|reply
ha, just for free throws. all his other shots were basically dunks (except that one lucky three-pointer). he was such a beast.