Here's a novel piece of software: Pocket Rangefinder, from Ze Development. Pocket Rangefinder gives you estimates accurate by 10 feet at 200 feet as to how far you are from a list of common objects, like people, cars, planes, etc. When I first read that I went off, thinking how Ze must have done it, and how expensive the CF card with the radar must be, and how does it … There's no additional equipment needed for your Pocket PC–the software is much more efficient than that. There is simply a database of images of cars, people, planes, etc., in the software. You select what you're looking for and compare the picture on your handheld to the figure within your eyesight. Zoom in or out on the handheld until the size of the actual figure matches the size of the figure on your Pocket PC. When they match, the distance on the screen is the distance from you to the figure. Of course, you must assume that the object you're observing is similar enough in size to the object in the database–judging the distance of Verne Troyer or Yao Ming would probably be inaccurate. Check out Pocket Rangefinder at ZeDev.com. Thanks to TekGuru for the link.
USER COMMENTS 9 comment(s)
|Hrmm… (11:00am EST Thu Aug 28 2003)
Must have a pretty steep margin of error but sounds like a good idea for an app.
*mental note… decompile Pocket Rangefinder….develop Pocket DistanceFinder….* – by Johny-D
|Cool idea (12:52pm EST Thu Aug 28 2003)
Sort of the way people do it. – by M@
|Cheaper alternative (3:07pm EST Thu Aug 28 2003)
Go to a camera store and get a used rangefinder for a buck. These have been available for the last 70(?) years. – by MB
|these (model) cars are small.. (6:21pm EST Thu Aug 28 2003)
..those (real) cars are far away.. – by randomaction
|I thought the new Mini's were small (8:55pm EST Thu Aug 28 2003)
Then I saw an original Mini yesterday. It was so tiny, I couldn't feel how a human being could fit in the driver's seat. – by Kev, a Swing Dancer
|It's surprisingly accurate (8:31pm EST Sun Aug 31 2003)
It all depends on how accurately other parameters are known — for instance, the height of your Pocket PC screen, your arm length. The first two parameters can be measured with a ruler and customized for each user, so they don't contribute significantly to the error.
Beyond that, the accuracy depends on how closely you can set the height of the image on your screen to the apparent height of the distant object. If you have a steady hand, I've found it quite possible to keep the error down to 5-10%.
– by 0xdecaf
|get a life (12:56pm EST Mon Oct 13 2003)
you guys are dorks! – by Archie
|GEEKS (7:16pm EST Wed Oct 13 2004)
GEEKS – by Sakura
|Livecams (1:55am EST Sun Apr 16 2006)
– by John