(Topic ID: 145981)

Design brainstorm on camera integration in a pin

By jackd104

8 years ago


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Topic Stats

  • 13 posts
  • 9 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 8 years ago by L8vid
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    #1 8 years ago

    We've seen hobbyists put small cameras inside machines and record cool footage. What if pin manufacturers incorporated mini cameras into the play field design of a game and integrated them with gameplay? And fed video snips to LCD screens in the back glass or other places? What cool things could you do that were integrated with gameplay or the theme? I invite the community to creatively brainstorm on this!

    Jack

    #2 8 years ago

    So you wanna see everything twice

    #3 8 years ago

    For example, brief slo mo instant replays of difficult or key shots, for the player or spectators. I'm not talking merely a live feed. Think about what you can do with cameras, displays, sensors, programming, image analysis, theme.

    #4 8 years ago

    A live view of the tilt bob would be about the only interesting thing I can think of.

    #6 8 years ago
    Quoted from jorro:

    a mini tv on playfield, a camera in backbox
    tv plays video of players face when ball drains, or highlights after each ball of acomplished shots you smiling ?

    #7 8 years ago

    What if you had an upper playfield that covered a big portion of the playfield, but there's a 2nd playfield area underneath that normally wouldn't be seen, but there's a wide angle camera mounted in there and you have to play using the camera.

    Heck, why limit to a tiny portion? Have a completely second playfield in the bottom of the cabinet with a camera mounted at the ball trough. No longer are you limited by a tiny window in the playfield.

    I'd wonder what the latency would be on a camera/display, and could you get used to it?

    #8 8 years ago
    Quoted from NinJaBooT:

    So you wanna see everything twice

    That could be an interesting mode on a Catch-22 game.

    #9 8 years ago
    Quoted from John_I:

    A live view of the tilt bob would be about the only interesting thing I can think of.

    Especially if my wife was playing.

    #10 8 years ago
    Quoted from John_I:

    A live view of the tilt bob would be about the only interesting thing I can think of.

    I think the Korn did that on his bride of pinbot, has an LCD on top of the backbox.

    #11 8 years ago
    Quoted from toyotaboy:

    I'd wonder what the latency would be on a camera/display, and could you get used to it?

    For the pinball show we do in the UK I planned a camera rig setup, so you could play BSD next to Farsight's emulated version of BSD.

    I rigged up an Xbox controller to the fliptronics, then had a camera and tv (so you could play the real game, but using a controller, and watching the TV - just like Farsight's game)

    Anyway. Lag killed it. Completely unplayable. You would have to spend big bucks on high end gear to remove the latency from digital processing (both on the camera and tv). I did briefly consider trying to find an analog camera and tv!

    #12 8 years ago

    It might work with a Pinball 2000 type setup. What if there was an image of actual playfield action with say a ten second delay being projected onto the glass? So you have a virtual ball bouncing around the playfield while you're trying to keep track of the real ball. Try not to tilt when you see the virtual ball heading for the outlanes. Have an award for the real ball hitting a target at the same time as the virtual ball. Could work well with a time travel theme or Dr Manhattan mode on a Watchmen pin (yes, that's a hint JJP).

    #13 8 years ago

    Biggest issue with videoing pinball is lighting. Cheaper camcorders always have a muddy picture in ambient light and especially with low-lighting pinball tables. Some cameras (and webcams) drop the fps down to 15 or so to compensate but then you're left with blurry ball-traces.

    Blasting your table with light makes for nice video but it's tough on players -- here's an example of a remote table:

    There's already topics on pin-camera rigs around but I don't recall anyone reviewing small playfield cameras that perform well in low light.
    --r.e.

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