Mobile tech goes to the dogs… the DockDogs, that is

Dockdogsjump

This past weekend I decided to completely unplug, so we took our kids to what’s billed as the fasted growing sport in America: DockDogs. We can argue the top-billing later; suffice it to say, this dog jumping contest had quite an audience at our local Cabela’s store in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. Don’t know what DockDogs is? Surely you live under a rock (or you’re a "cat-person"); everyone knows that this is a long-jump contest for dogs, right? The question is: how do they measure the jumps?

DockdogstechSurprise, surprise: there’s a little mobile tech involved here. Those measurements on the pool are really only to provide a general idea of the jump length for the spectators. The actual measurement is pretty official using a laptop connected to a handheld video camera that’s mounted in the judging area. The dogs can use up the full forty feet of dock to get a running start and then they leap off of the dock into the pool; usually the dog’s handler will throw a toy just in front of the dog as they jump in order to maximize the height and distance.

The entire jump is caught on the video camera and captured to the connected laptop where a judge can immediately move the video frame by frame, forward and back. DockDog rules account for the varying length of a dog’s tail, so the judge moves the frames to the exact point where the rear of the dog, not the tail, touch the water. Still, they don’t use the markings on the side of the pool for the actual distance.

Instead, the video camera and software are calibrated before the event with plumb-lines and tape measures. Once the various distances from the camera to the ground and water are entered into the software application, the program is "smart enough" to know the distances based on the captured images. At that point, it’s simply a matter of finding the correct frame where the dog touches the water. As a result, the DockDog faithful never waited more than 15 seconds to get the actual results; there were still water ripples from the jump when we got the measurements. By the way: these dogs in the Pro division were clearing over 26-feet!

Still think it’s not a real sport? It has to be: I saw dogs with sponsor patches on for contingency prize money. And you thought NASCAR was bad with the sponsorship…

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