EMIT Touch Free

[Timsands]

I am interested to read the views of competitors who used the Emit touch free system at the Southampton Urban Event.

As background, I understand EMIT AS currently has IOF approval for the units for use at MTBO and Ski O events. I further understand that for Foot O approval the IOF require EMIT to demonstrate the system at three WRE. EMIT tell me this is planned for next year. A debate now might prove helpful to British Orienteering IOF representatives if called upon to make a judgement.

Currently, I remain open minded. I did find the units very easy to hang and light to carry. However, I have not used standard EMIT or SI boxes in the Urban environment so it is impossible for me to make an objective comparison. I can see that in mass start events, where there is a real risk of congested controls, the TF controls offer a real advantage.

[Roomungous]

Whilst I am generally an EMIT fan, standard EMIT controls are more challenging to mount in an urban environment than SI. I am sure Greywolf will back that up louder than me.

[andypat]

standard EMIT controls are more challenging to mount in an urban environment than SI.

Having wrestled with the more or less upside down emit control at Lossiemouth last time I concur!

[drobin]

I observed several competitors physically touching the controls, so I think it will take a few events to work out the safe distance to pass successfully (70cm?). This was also true of the emit bricks where it is not necessary to fully insert them, merely to pass it over the lumpy bit. This makes (for me) emit punching quicker and smoother than inserting my SI SI Card into a wobbling box.

Also unlike the standard emit and si, isn't the time logged when the tag is first in range rather than when it leaves? If so, some competitors may have had a longer first split than they thought!

[blindasabat]

with touch free emit, how do you know you've actually 'dibbed' if emit no longer uses the scrolling display?
My first attempt at using TF resulted in 3 mps

[King Penguin]

A light on it flashes.
I found it easier than standard EMIT, but was overcautious and went very close, virtually touching, at almost every control.
Also, splits didn't initially make sense until I realised that I had picked up 3 extra controls without realising it.
Disadvantage is no backup. Still prefer SI because you get audible confirmation as well as visual.

[MIE]

with touch free emit, how do you know you've actually 'dibbed' if emit no longer uses the scrolling display?
My first attempt at using TF resulted in 3 mps

With the new touch free controls you don't use your brikke you use
one of these http://emit.no/en/product/emitag-timing-chip-157
and the light flashes for 15secs (I think, and stand to be corrected)
after being recorded at the control.

I had no problems -- 2nd time I've used them as a runner and 2 weeks ago
I employed them in my role as planner at the Army event in Southwick Park.

They were easy to deploy in an enclosed environment (no need for anti-theft
measures ) and easy to collect afterwards. I discovered that they are not that
visible when hung from a 3D control site (e.g. Tree) and would have been more
easily seen with a kite (as per Saturday). The use of the 10cm training kite
(instead of a full-sized kite) on Saturday made the controls fair in all cases (IMHO)

[madmike]

I am interested to read the views of competitors who used the Emit touch free system at the Southampton Urban Event.

Tim here are the comments one of our club members put these comments in his post-race report, which I am sure he won't mind me sharing with you:. I have put in bold the important feedback.

Southampton Urban Event would be the first level C event to make use of the EMIT ETag electronic punching. I had first encountered it at the MLS event 2 Wednesdays previously and it it worth discussing it before the event itself. The EMIT Etag system is from the same family as EMIT, but with some interesting differences. Etag is used in Ski-O quite often where the advantage for the competitor is easy to understand. The Etag carried by the competitor is worn like a wrist watch, secured with a velcro strap, that will not foul the ski poles in the way that SI or conventional EMIT would. The unit is clear plastic and houses the chip as well as a small LED that flashes when in close proximity (10cm) of the control unit. The Control itself is about 20cm high and 15cm wide and 5cm deep and houses the proximity electronics with a 15cmx15cm control on one side only of the unit. This is about half the size of a normal control kite and crucially, is 2 dimensional. SOC learnt from the MLS and complemented these units with 3 dimensional training kites which, although smaller than competition kites, made a big difference to the visiblity of the unit when you were at the feature. When the competitor 'punches' the control by bringing the ETag close to the Control the red LED int he ETag flashes and you have 'punched'. The feedback is useful, but removes attention from the map, unlike SI which beeps, so I retain full map contact through a control.

You can probably guess who the author is ciao Mike

[roadrunner]

I found the system quite easy to use, though like some others I was initially over-cautious and went nearer to the controls than necessary. I still prefer SI for the "beep", though I agree that with practice this system could be a bit faster to use (and of course several people could punch at once).

The main things I didn't like were minor and not difficult to fix:

(1) The wrist strap was way too long for those with small wrists (especially children, I would think), which made it fiddly to put the Emit device on tightly enough that it didn't slip round so you couldn't see the light.

(2) Results printouts being confused by the extra split times you get as you inadvertently pass by other controls. (This could easily be fixed in the software by printing splits between only the valid controls for your course, with any extra ones (or correct ones punched out of order) added at the end, as is done with SI.)

[Domhnull Mor]

We used the touch free system at the ski-o world champs in March 2011. It was new to most of the competitors and we were tending to go for physical contact with the units to be on the safe side. The problem with this was that as we were often passing through at speed, the units were getting battered and several got damaged. After getting told off for this and becoming a bit more accustomed to how it worked, by the last races we were just skiing straight past, but making sure that we got the blinking light on the wrist unit (We had two at all times so we had a back-up. Maybe says something about how reliable the organisers thought the system was but also interesting simply due to the fact that having a second device was possible). As far as I was aware everyone was really happy with how the system worked and I only have positive comments about my experiences with it. It's definitely suited to ski-o but it may be debatable how good it is for foot-o.

[EddieH]

It was great in Southampton, but would fail in many sprints where legs can be under 15 seconds, thus it is still flashing from the previous control. It will also fail with controls close to uncrossable features as it would "punch" when the competitor has not gone to the control. Therefore it can only be used with care.

I also remember someone walking past the download queue with the finish control at a sprint event. Everyone's finish time was reset - my 20m leg to 20 minutes

Presumably the planner must ensure that there is no possibilty of running passed the start on the course and therefore clearing the tag. Similarly would running past the finish cause a problem?

[Roger]

Presumably the planner must ensure that there is no possibilty of running passed the start on the course and therefore clearing the tag.

Yes, the planner did exactly this: some late replanning after we'd lost permission for an intricate little area introduced a possible 'past the start' route choice, which Tim quickly recognised as a potential disaster and removed.

Similarly would running past the finish cause a problem?

No. Neither does loitering near the finish. According to the Emit team, the first finish punch gets recorded as '90', the next as '190' and so on. Some manual effort may be needed to determine which is the 'correct' one (i.e. 190 for a mid-course run past the finish and 90 for a loiterer), but all the information is there.

[soc123]

We inadvertantly caused a minor problem by having the demonstration control en route from the finish to download. A few competitors passing close by recorded an extra control and added the time it took to get to the demo unit from the finish. Lesson learnt. Next time make sure the demo control is only en route to the Start!

[Simon]

I observed several competitors physically touching the controls, so I think it will take a few events to work out the safe distance to pass successfully (70cm?).

When the competitor 'punches' the control by bringing the ETag close to the Control the red LED int he ETag flashes and you have 'punched'. The feedback is useful, but removes attention from the map, unlike SI which beeps, so I retain full map contact through a control.

The reason why I touch the control, with the ETag in this case or the Emit Brikke in the case of the old touch-free system, is so not to break concentration on the map checking whether I have punched. By touching I have clearly got close enough and then I believe the system will record the punch without me having to worry as to if I needed to be another 5cm closer.

[soc123]

Agree with EH that it would be more difficult to use in a sprint race as opposed to an urban race, but not impossible. BAOC were trialling the system at Southwick the other week and sometimes you picked up a control that was not yours, near to the control you were making for, but as the flashing dimmed, it got bright again as you "punched" your control . That event was on a 1:4000 scale map, not sure if it has been trialled on a 1:3000 scale map as yet, where controls could be closer together.