General Specifications and Requirements for a GPS Track  based Task verification program

The following points should be done automatic, without any operator interaction required by a GPS based task scoring program
 

• Cater for new GPS devices, as they come out, like PDA with GPS, Cellphones linked with GPS, Dataloggers, Vario with built in GPS,
• Use WGS-84 instead of FAI distance formula, see http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/documents/sc7 and  http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/Cpp/algorithms/article.php/c5115

• store data in a common format that also other programs can  handle. To enable cross verification by other code. Maybe use IGC format ? Or XML/GPX based? This needs some directive from CIVL/FAI
• Allow for a remote SS cylinder
• feed SS time to RACE when it was an elapsed time, suppress when it was a race to goal
• check the track date if the flight was within a valid time window
• determine the take off time and within designated take off area
• determine the SS time and if within SS time window
• handle different SS options, inside of SS, outside of SS, first crossing, last crossing
• should interpolate SS time, when necessary to get exact SS line crossing
• If entering too early or too late , score to the boundary crossing
• handle turnpoints, allow for radius size to be modified, check if a pilot crossed over within defined error
• handle cylinder goal or goal line and determine goal line/cylinder crossing
• Interpolate exact ES line crossing
• create km score depending on what the pilot achieved
• have an option  to score closest trackpoint to next turnpoint score
• Allow for a cut off time and score position at cut off time
• Check for flying after down and safe time  and score either until that time or 0
• allow for switching off time and date checking in case a GPS has a screwed up date
• work on FAI distance formula, maybe also have option for other distance formulas, developer to disclose distance formula used
• interpolate in between track points using speed and direction
• work on basic 40MB 100 MHZ PCs,  VGA cards, WIN 95 upwards
• open for plugin modules to handle different makes and models of track devices, e.g. GARMIN, MLR, Datalogger,.. and other future devices
• RACE interface, bi directional
• Graphic display, zoom functionality, true distance projection
• Display time stamps to see where and when a pilot was in case the goal crossing or SS crossing is questioned
• Pin Map functionality which gives an overview of pilots landing points
• Allow for different plug ins for scoring a turnpoint using different algorithms
• To be portable on all hardware platforms. Maybe in JAVA and Web enabled for marketing and PR
• check on altitude changes to see if a pilot is on the ground
• unique pilot identification which can not be tampered with
• Allow for a self-service mode operation to enable pilots to score themselves without a dedicated operator
• Fast, automatic mode of operation which downloads track, scores and feeds result to RACE without any operator action required
• feed the tracks and scores to a web server to enable everyone worldwide to see the tracks and verify the score

  Future

• Link cell phone with GPS
• Use Cellphone as a datalogger
• Use cellphone to SMS on a regular basis position of pilot
• Write some code to score track immediately from tracklog when pilot has landed and SMS result to meet center
• Use some Java? code to do the cellphone code to communicate with GPS
• Have in the meetcenter a link to a web server that collects the SMS and displays real time the pilots on the web as they fly the task.
• Java Applets for scoring tracks
• Post all tracks on a webserver. And a Java applet to score each track ? Everyone worldwide can scrutinize the track logs.
• Combine something like OLC with a competition and score the tracks central on the web server. With immediate update of a central RACE and WPRS.
• GPS device to know the task and recognize when you approach and cross a cylinder and then store those points that document your cylinder crossing.

  Give some acoustic signal that you got the cylinder and can now carry on. A la Compeo/Galileo or TopNav.
  In between turnpoints have a low sample rate and only report a point every 10 or even less seconds.
  No one is interested in the points between the turnpoints. All that matters is the cylinder crossing and goal crossing.
  To download and store all those thousands of points is a delay at scoring time.

 But... I am working on a code that will analyze tracks for thermals and trigger points.
  And there I am keen on a good high sample rate to determine the thermal location.
  And from there then over the years build up a thermal trigger database ( Hausbart Karte)
 Also  combine it with a 3D topographic data , Earth Google,  and see if I can calculate triggerpoints by weather conditions.
 So in future we got some gadget that got the 3D topo data, , Earth Google or NASA World Wind, along with your Vario and GPS and it will tell you while you fly that the next thermal is probably over there. 
 

• Have a better handshaking when dowloading tracks using a fast baud rate.  Current approach  throws the data  down the serial port and hopes the other side will pick it up. But it does not always work.