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Watch Le Mans From Inside Le Car
RhaLovely writes: "GM has set up a Web site to cover the Le Mans race. The interesting thing here is that they also fixed some video cameras and sensors on their cars (Corvettes and Cadillacs) so that people can follow the race on the site. You will be able to see the windshield view, the speed of the car, RPM of the engine, brake pressure, the location of the car on the circuit, the lateral acceleration on the pilot (not so easy to be a pilot) and during the night they'll use some infrared captors."
Yep, watch a nascar race anyday, and you'll see all of the features that are added to these cars.
Eh...
If you want to see something really cool, go unitedspacealliance.com or spaceflight.nasa.gov during a shuttle mission. You can see live orbiter telemetry -- not just some state vector-base orbital predictor, but actual telemetry. The applet even uses the same telemetry protocol as is used within mission control.
--Jim
I'm watching LeMans on Speedvision in one window and I have the GM feed in another window.
I finally feel like the PC is fufilling some of those 'multimedia' promises I bought into years ago. Enhanced TV, stats, etc etc.
This is a hell of a lot better than watching some jerky video of a movie trailer or watching a halfhour long flash intro.
D
The first, last, and only tech news site on the net
[Long-distance shot of cars going around a racetrack, while the soundtrack plays a groovy wocka-chika beat. The camera zooms in to follow a beat-up station wagon on the track, its hood emblazoned with the "Intel Inside" logo. Behind the wheel is a geeky looking middle-aged guy.]
[The Intel driver accelerates up to a pack of formula-one race cars, emblazoned with AMD symbol and "Athlon 1 GHz" logos. The guy cracks a goofy grin and gives a thumbs up to the other drivers, who frown, peel rubber, and leave the station wagon in the dust. The station wagon begins sputtering, the hubcaps fall off, and the car breaks down in the middle of the racetrack.]
Announcer: "Can't do it in real life? Do it on the web." [Intel theme plays]
Now, what *would* be helpful is for certain practical info to be made available in realtime. What lap is being run? What was the top speed of the last lap? What are the positions of the drivers? If this kind of info was typically available on the net, I'd probably watch races on the tv along with following it on the net.
Nascar provides all the information in your wishlist and then some. I do exactly what you describe on Sundays when football isn't on. Check out Nascar Online while a race is going on.
Cart.com has been doing this for over a year now (sans the camera) thanks to the fine people at Quokka Sports. The stats are not just limited to the sponsored teams either :)
For those fans of Indy style racing, check it out...
For me to get the data across the net - the Internet - IF it could be streamed quickly enough to be essentially real-time, it would be a waste of bandwidth, imho. As a spectator, what does it add to the "experience"?
For you, maybe nothing. For someone else, maybe everything. If someone wants to geek out over how well the mechanical geeks did on the car, who are you to tell them that's uninformative?
I'm not sure I'd want that kind of data from my team's car going out over the internet though; Someone will be sitting with a laptop and a Motorola Mobydem (ha ha) in the other team's pits saying "If you push them just so, their mileage plummets!"
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Yay! Finally, GM is more open about having adopted Linux! Even on race cars!
Oh, wait. They meant Rotations Per Minute, not RedHat Package Manager, didn't they?
Darn. Well, it'll still be cool. I hope someday we do have a linux-powered car....
|/usr/games/fortune
Holy crap! The video is currently showing the pit crew and they're working at 174MPH / 7000 RPM and there's not a single car in sight! That's dedication, I tell you.
-vic
It is difficult for me to see this one as having any value. At 100 mi/hr (160 km/hr), things happen rather quickly. The vehicle moves at nearly 150ft/sec or 50m/sec. In-car cam views across the net may be technically interesting, but I don't see this being the way to watch a race in the future. (The idea of engine status monitoring over the net is funny at best.)
Now, what *would* be helpful is for certain practical info to be made available in realtime. What lap is being run? What was the top speed of the last lap? What are the positions of the drivers? If this kind of info was typically available on the net, I'd probably watch races on the tv along with following it on the net.
Graham
Graham
Linux - Fast Pane Relief
...would there be enough drivers for Linux based cars?
Heck, I'd watch that if I could see readouts of:
1) The number of decals, T-shirts, etc. of that particular driver on sale at Wal Mart, Tennessean strip mall racin' memorabilia shops, etc.
2) The inebriation level of the audience.
3) How many teeth the average audience member has.
4) Amount of advertising revenue the driver has at that moment from snack foods, breakfast dishes at Denny's, etc
5) The number of "Stone Cold Steve Austin" shirts in the audience
6) Number of cases of "new, NASA grade surfractant synthetic polyamorous engine lubricant performance engine oil" audience members are considering buying even though audience members have on average 2 cars, one of which is held together with duct tape and Bondo and the other of which is on blocks in front of the trailer
7) Number of people that actually have the revelation that you're awarding someone a trophy for DRIVING IN A CIRCLE REAL FAST.
8) Number of people incensed at some weird ending (they have to pace lap the last three laps or something cause Jeff Gordon made someone clip him and he always does that, I hate Jeff Gordon yee haw ah seckind that, pass the Jack Danyils, etc)
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
Ferrari and all of the other high-performance engine producers has been doing race analysis for many years now.
The CAN (car area network) is one of many automotive technologies that's gone from race-course to shopping mall. Sensors all over the car send back their data to a central computer.
Telemetry (from both accelerometers and gps/loran-like triangulators) can assist dead-reckoning analysis. "Did I take that corner too wide?" And temperatures and revolutions can be measured at many critical points, including tires, brakes, oil, engine block, tranny, etc.
[
Trying 24.128.93.104...
Connected to car54.race.cadillac.com
Escape character is '^]'.
Welcome to Car 54, find out where we are!
CarMon version 0.99b
Cockpit temp: 108F
Gas: 68% +/- 5%
Driver: Agitated
Reason: Gotta pee *really bad*
Car speed: 180 MPH
Number of people logged in: 48391
...
Cockpit temp: 123F
Gas: 45% +/- 5%
Driver: Agitated
Reason: Gotta pee *really bad*
Car speed: 245 MPH
Number of people logged in: 92838
...
Broadcast message from driver (pts/1) Sat Jun 17 06:14:54 2000...
Pitstop!
The system is going down to maintenance mode NOW !!
Connection to remote host lost.
~$ _