Why is SkyTrak so slow to render shots?

[soccerdude]

So I've seen videos where it takes ST 10 seconds to render a shot on the ipad after you hit the ball. I recently asked Bubba22 (who is testing ST with TGC) how long it took to render a shot on his PC (I assume it was on a PC) and he said 3 seconds. This surprised me... I thought for sure that once connected to a PC, the shot would be rendered much more quickly. According to ProTee, ST just passes the raw data (ball speed, launch angle, direction, backspin and spin axis) and then TGC calculates/renders the ball flight. So does this mean that the slowness is in the ST unit itself (as opposed to in the ipad or PC)? I am thinking there must by a cpu or microprocessor in the ST unit that analyzes the photos and then calculates the raw data so it can pass it on to the ipad or PC. If so, is its slowness due to a hardware limitation in the ST unit itself? If it is, then it would seem to me that no firmware or software upgrade would resolve this issue - and that nothing short of installing a faster cpu in the ST unit would speed things up. SkyTrak/ProTee/Others, thoughts/comments? Thanks in advance.

[goatbarn]

Yes, the ST processes the images on the unit itself, then passes it to the mobile device or PC. Maybe they can change that procedure when it's connect via PC, maybe not.

[davray666]

goatbarn, do you know that for sure or is it an assumption? All evidence so far suggests that the Skytrak unit does no calculations. All it does is captures 2 images (a'la Vector pro) and sends the image data to the PC or iPad where all the image processing is done. E.g. that is why an iPad Air is slower than an iPad Air 2.
But I am just guessing.
A PC CPU that runs TGC is pretty loaded so the 3s delay sounds resonable if compared to an iPad Air2 that does only the vision processing.

[soccerdude]

I wonder if there are two separate and distinct phases of processing that might explain what we're seeing.

Phase # 1, the ST Unit itself grabs and processes the images to determine the raw data (ball speed, launch angle, direction, backspin and spin axis)

Phase # 2, the ipad or PC accepts the raw data from the ST unit, and then has to calculate and render the ball flight.

I can see both of these phases being processor intensive. Could this explain why a newer ipad will display a shot faster than an older one? And also explain why a ST attached to a PC is still what I would call slow i.e. because the ST (low on horse-power?) is doing the initial processing of the photos to calculate the raw ball data?

I'm just speculating here based on what I've read from various sources. I can't wait for someone in the know to respond. Again, thanks in advance.

[SimAddict]

I hope my 6 core i7 can turn that 3 seconds into 2 but honestly i thought it would bug me a lot more then it does. You get used to it.

[goatbarn]

I believe the ST internally processes the images, meaning it takes the images, then stores them, then internal software finds the ball in each picture, and maybe marks dimples or ball logo's analyzed as being the same in each picture, and then passes it on. That's my assumption though.

The mobile device or PC would then use the analyzed images and apply the ball algorithms to produce the numbers/ball flight.

I don't know if that is the extent or that is more than/less than what is done internally. But, the less they have to handle internally the faster it could be. If they could just send the raw photos over to a PC, I think it'd be faster.

[goatbarn]

Of course Skytrak could (and maybe has already?) expound on this and clarify.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

There is no processing that happens on the unit itself, we're just sending images. With each new processor release (iPad and PC) it naturally gets faster, but we are always working to get the shot-to-show time down. We'll be working with each sim company to make sure it's as optimized as possible.

[soccerdude]

That's interesting. Thanks for the clarification. So there is hope that as ipads/pc's get faster, the shot to show times will get better. How many images is the ST taking/sending to be processed?

[karladam]

I know this has been asked in other threads, but not sure there was a clear answer. Will the shot-to-show time be any different on iPad Air 2 versus and iPad Air?

[SkyTrak_Seth]

It's about 1 second faster (so around 4 seconds)

[karladam]

Thanks. Appreciate the response

[jon.summy@aol.com]

I have the IPAD Air 2 and the processing speed is excellent.......I have noticed something and I am not sure if it is a trend or not......anything higher than a 9 iron that goes really high takes longer to process on the IPAD. So my 5-9 are very fast......Wedges are a touch slower......not complaining.....SkyTrak is awesome!!!!!!!! My son who is 11 uses it and has gotten great results......It has been raining so hard here in TX that all the courses are shutdown.....so we just hit on SKYTrak.......this machine is awesome!!!! We could care less about a Sim option!!!! This machine rocks as is!!!!

[SkyTrak_Seth]

I believe the image processing does a 'second look' at shots that may fall outside average launch conditions - just to make sure it is reading correctly. I'm curious if you move the ball a touch in front of the red dot (towards the target) on wedge shots if you encounter the same delay?

[jon.summy@aol.com]

Interesting.....Let me try this and report back. I can tell you we find this system very accurate. It really shows an accurate ball flight......we use it on 20, 30, 40, 50, and 75 yard shots in our yard....and we aren't hitting into a net. It shows the shot identical to the flight. It is amazing.