Introduction to our Project

We've written an introduction to our project and the specification report.

The pool table app aims to help players improve their pool playing ability by using a platform which  is available to anyone with an android powered phone(Approx 13 million in the UK).The Android platform is the fastest growing platform in the Smartphone market  so the number of potential customers is increasing. By using a Smartphone, the cost of implementation of the app for the consumer is much reduced since the customer already owns the hardware. It is also more practical since the hardware and software is all on a handheld device.

The app also shows off the potential of augmented reality technology.

Project Description and Methodology:

Creating a mobile phone application which assists a player taking a shot in a game of pool.  Using the camera of a smart phone and the principle of augmented reality, the application will take the position of the cue held by the player and tells if they are hitting the correct ball and if the ball will be potted.  As the phone will be held above the table, sounds are to be used to tell the player how to correct the shot. 

The project is broken up into 3 parts, with each team member taking a section.  These are the Graphical User Interface, the geometry of collisions, and the image capture and analysis.

The sections all follow a similar 5 step process: Design and Analysis, Creation of an algorithm, Construction of the code, Testing, and Final Implementation.

The GUI needs to be clear, concise, easy to use, and aesthetically pleasing.  It also needs to contain instructions on how to use, about the app, and a settings menu.  The GUI also contains all the sound files that the app uses.

The Geometry section requires all the physics about the collisions between the balls, angles of the collisions, and predicting the path of the balls in the collision.

The image capture and analysis section involves taking the image that is seen by the camera, detect the layout of the table, and filtering out unwanted information.  It then needs to detect the position of all the position of all the balls and the cue.  Then, with full implementation with the geometry section, can plot the paths of the balls and use sounds to tell the user whether or not there will be a hit.

Project Milestones:

• Using camera
• Pool table recognition (dimensions)
• Ball recognition
• Ball differentiation
• Movement of cue
• Geometry integration
• GUI Creation
• GUI Integration
• Use of sound in GUI

Project Deliverables:

• Full report
• Working Prototype which uses 4 pockets in its view. The cue and 2 balls in view. Calculating a shot prediction within 5 seconds and using sounds to tell the user if it’s going to be a hit or miss.
• Log Book
• Blog Diary of the Progress
• Poster