CSIO displays timing management system with near zero error margin

A laser-based timing management system for motor-sport events might actually prove to be a game changer in the times to come.

A laser-based timing management system for motor-sport events might actually prove to be a game changer in the times to come. It promises to reduce the error margin to almost nil.

Presented at the ongoing national symposium on instrumentation organised by the Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO),the invention is significant for sports organizers as the system guarantees providing the first hundred percent accurate estimate of time. Moreover,the lap timing can be displayed in real time to the audience,thereby reducing the suspense that follows the event.

Navneet Singh Aulakh,a scientist with CSIO and Inderdeep Kaur Aulakh,assistant professor at Panjab University,started working on the idea in the month of August. The first test trial of the system was conducted in a motor-sport rally held in Chandigarh in September.

A very thin beam of laser is projected at the two ends of the racing track and the time,exact to microseconds,when a car crosses past the beam is recorded. According to Navrneet,the system is more accurate than conventional systems based on loop detectors or cameras. A laser beam does not spread beyond a few millimeter,whereas a loop cannot discern the location of the car with accuracy smaller than its physical dimensions which are in meters. Similarly,the camera cannot discern the measurement of accuracy of car location less than its scope of vision, Navneet says .

The information,in real time,is transmitted to a computer connected with the master unit and can be displayed for the audience with the help of a projector.

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