
My robotic basketball hoop won't let you miss [video] - o10449366
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FycDx69px8U
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donquichotte
All videos on this channel are worth watching. Interestingly enough, this one
and another of my favourite channels [1] are run by Formlabs employees. It
seems like they have some excellent engineers working for them.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMf49SMPnhxdLormhEpfyfg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMf49SMPnhxdLormhEpfyfg)

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TimMeade
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.

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ChuckNorris89
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.

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TimMeade
python available on linux or macos.

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schwap
Yes and...? Neither Linux (normally) or MacOS an RTOS, what would he gain by
switching to them?

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donatj
In the case of Linux you could entirely eliminate almost everything else using
CPU time such as window management in a way not really practical for Windows.

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fyp
Another similar project by Mark Rober for darts:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHTizZ_XcUM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHTizZ_XcUM)

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rajnathani
He mentions it in the video at around the 1:53 mark.

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gpvos
"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.

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iso1631
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"

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xwdv
This could have some practical use for trash cans so people can just throw
away trash from across the room.

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Cactus2018
> The Smart Trash Can which moves autonomously to catch your trash picked up
> an Excellence Award at this years Japan Media Arts Festival.

>12/2/2013 Japan Media Arts Festival

>Minoru Kurata

>Smart Trashbox

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEC0FVT8wek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEC0FVT8wek)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNWd4FFYDv0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNWd4FFYDv0)

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Kaibeezy
See also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22898653](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22898653)

Put the robot backboard at one end and the curved one at the other end, hold
some sort of tournament ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

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jrockway
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?

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TechBro8615
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!

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pimlottc
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.

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srean
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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_manipulator)
Inverse kinematics of parallel manipulators for the general case can get
really hairy

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agustif
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

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WrtCdEvrydy
same guy.

~~~
judge2020
Even mentions and showcases the old one within the first few minutes of this
video.

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donatj
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?

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Amorymeltzer
HN discussion of the previous version:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22898653](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22898653)

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roland35
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?

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floatrock
"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...

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exabrial
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)?

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pletsch
Assuming it's the time from when he shoots to when it arrives at the backboard

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mthwsjc_
wow. this is amazing. so much work

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aidenn0
I wonder if large amounts of spin will cause it to miss?

[edit]

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

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geerlingguy
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.

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batesy
This guy is smarter than me.

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benraskin92
Shaq could've used this! Awesome project!

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clairity
ha, just for free throws. all his other shots were basically dunks (except
that one lucky three-pointer). he was such a beast.

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ykevinator
Really cool

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kleiba
Ah, being young again and not having family, but spare time instead... Awesome
project!

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goldenkey
Same could be said for sickness, poverty, or well, any other forms of time
drain. Somehow, someway, many make time to create awesomeness anyway. This
makes it sound like a reason so you can resent the kids when they are grown
up?

Take a look at Tech Ingredients. He involves his son in all his
projects/videos:

[https://www.youtube.com/user/TechIngredients](https://www.youtube.com/user/TechIngredients)

I would say he's a better father than most _because_ of the fun experiments he
does with his kids.

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kleiba
_Same could be said for sickness, poverty, or well, any other forms of time
drain._

Of course but luckily the first two don't apply to me. And that any form of
time drain leaves you with less time is kind of tautological.

 _Take a look at Tech Ingredients. He involves his son in all his projects
/videos:_

That's good for him. But not everyone is the same. For instance, a father who
has three children, say aged, 1, 2, and 3 years old should probably find it
more difficult to involve all of them in his hobby projects.

I do agree, though, that as your kids get older and more and more independent,
the amounts of free time you have start getting bigger again...

