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04/25/2006 01:35:35 PM · #1 |
So I'm back shooting some more running races. Every participant as a bib with a number on it. To increase sales, you want to email the person with list of the pictures that they are in, rather than making them wade through 500+ pictures to find themselves. Doing this manual sorting is a PITA.
Is anyone aware of software that automates this process ?
Would it be of interest to any of you in any particular sporting domains ?
I'm thinking of writing some software that attempts this. I figure it should have some of the following features
Recognition engine that can take a JPEG, process it and stick a runner ID in an EXIF field, maybe along with a confidence value on that.
For cases where the confidence is too low, provide it to a user with a very simple interface, to punch in the correct number (and maybe learn from that ? )
Create thumbnails for images
Collate runner id, email address and thumbnails and send them off to the participant
Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas welcome. I'm mostly thinking out loud right now. |
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04/25/2006 03:30:53 PM · #2 |
most of the races i've seen here in richmond (home of the 4th largest 10k in the country) are digitally timed (i think they shoot some kind of reader at the barcodes on the bibs). if you synchronize your camera time to the race clock, you could take the race results and correlate the race finishes to a listing of your digital inventory. you should be close enough to manually clean them up fairly easily.
you do want it to be correct, though. my son ran a race last year, and when i keyed in the image ids that came on the follow up postcard, the photos were of someone else; when i called them about it, they said they had no way to find any images of my son...and a sale was lost.
good luck. |
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04/25/2006 04:28:56 PM · #3 |
Thing is, most of the photos aren't taken at the finish line, particularly in triathlons were people are doing three sports and only doing one at the end ;)
Most races have chip timing but trying to sync up those lists would be interesting for 10,000 people. |
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04/25/2006 05:19:52 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by Gordon:
Recognition engine that can take a JPEG, process it and stick a runner ID in an EXIF field, maybe along with a confidence value on that. |
I'm thinking it might be easier/safer to post that data to one of the IPTC (File Info) fields rather than to the EXIF -- either in the Caption or Keyword areas would make sense to me.
Existing OCR software Might be able to recognize the numbers, though they're somewhat picky about the size and angle. If you're writing your own, you might want to give it the option of reading the bar-code as well as the bib number. If you want to market this beyond running/biking-type events, you'll want to be able to read helmet and jersey numbers as well.
It sounds as though you already have access to a database of participants' ID numbers and emails? |
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04/25/2006 05:22:35 PM · #5 |
| sounds like the type of outsourcing opportunity that drove me out of IT and into photography ;-) |
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