Nationals championship non D Q question

So, the whole non-simultaneous touch thing is something that *could* be automatically detected by touch pads, but obviously currently isn't. There's a whole policy aspect that FINA/governing bodies would have to sort out. The technology exists, it just isn't implemented right now. To the best of my knowledge, touch pads used today aren't significantly different than the touch pads used decades ago. Some of the policy issues that would have to be figured out: 1)How many points of contact would be required to determine a two hand touch? 2)What margin of error is allowed for it to be considered a simultaneous touch? 3)How much distance must be between the different points of contact to be considered a two hand touch? 4)What if a swimmer only touches one hand on the pad and one hand on the wall? 5)How much force is required for each point of contact to be considered a legal touch? There are more policy issues that would need to be resolved, but off the top of my head those are the 5 main ones. From a technology standpoint, it's feasible to implement touch detection with that level of accuracy, it's just a matter of the governing bodies providing the appropriate detection parameters for the software. Shameless self plug here--my company will be coming out with touch pads and timing system gear in the next couple of years, and we're going to incorporate the hardware required for that level of touch detection, so if the governing bodies ever decide to provide the policy for automated touch detection, we can implement it via software. I had an interesting conversation about touchpads with Matt Murphy of Omega in Bloomington. The current Omega timing software can track and sort out multiple touches during a race. This occurs frequently during distance freestyle events when the lap counters inadvertently hit the pads with the count boards. They basically set up a timing "window" in the software when the actual swimmers' touches normally would occur and ignore anything else. I suppose in theory they could do the same thing looking for two hand touches within a more narrow window. As an official I'm a bit biased, but I still think the best solution is well-trained, experienced officials on deck.

So, the whole non-simultaneous touch thing is something that *could* be automatically detected by touch pads, but obviously currently isn't. There's a whole policy aspect that FINA/governing bodies would have to sort out. The technology exists, it just isn't implemented right now. To the best of my knowledge, touch pads used today aren't significantly different than the touch pads used decades ago. Some of the policy issues that would have to be figured out: 1)How many points of contact would be required to determine a two hand touch? 2)What margin of error is allowed for it to be considered a simultaneous touch? 3)How much distance must be between the different points of contact to be considered a two hand touch? 4)What if a swimmer only touches one hand on the pad and one hand on the wall? 5)How much force is required for each point of contact to be considered a legal touch? There are more policy issues that would need to be resolved, but off the top of my head those are the 5 main ones. From a technology standpoint, it's feasible to implement touch detection with that level of accuracy, it's just a matter of the governing bodies providing the appropriate detection parameters for the software. Shameless self plug here--my company will be coming out with touch pads and timing system gear in the next couple of years, and we're going to incorporate the hardware required for that level of touch detection, so if the governing bodies ever decide to provide the policy for automated touch detection, we can implement it via software. I had an interesting conversation about touchpads with Matt Murphy of Omega in Bloomington. The current Omega timing software can track and sort out multiple touches during a race. This occurs frequently during distance freestyle events when the lap counters inadvertently hit the pads with the count boards. They basically set up a timing "window" in the software when the actual swimmers' touches normally would occur and ignore anything else. I suppose in theory they could do the same thing looking for two hand touches within a more narrow window. As an official I'm a bit biased, but I still think the best solution is well-trained, experienced officials on deck.