Implementation · 20.0 m
How we know it is 20.0 m
A 2% error on this court is 40 cm — enough to turn a legal touch into a miss, or the reverse.
The method that draws the pretty overlay is not automatically the method that certifies the metre.
This page tracks pending designs for the pathways worth building, and
attempts so far against those pathways.
Product law stays fixed: tape or laser owns the official metre.
AR, IMU, and camera assists may walk and draw. GPS never counts. Unsupervised depth reads of a parked phone are not a 20 m tape.
Pending design — pathways worth building
From the measure table on the notes: only the high design-fit / official-metre-pass methods.
The shit ones (phone GPS, L1/L5 GNSS indoors, parked LiDAR as course length) are ignored here on purpose.
Pending design
Walk + steel tape (preferred)
Design fit ●●●●● · Official metre: pass
Phone walks the court (ARKit / ARCore VIO), drops two end anchors, then a steel tape or laser disto
between the same marks becomes the certified length. AR only has to stay registered to those marks.
Why it matters
Best setup UX with an honest metre. Scale error in wild VIO is commonly single-digit percent —
fine for drawing, fatal as the official number without tape.
Pending design
Steel tape / laser only
Design fit ●●●●○ · Official metre: pass
Type the certified metres from a Class II tape (±mm over 20 m) or a laser disto (±1–3 mm).
No camera model required for the metre itself. Human-judged nights can live here entirely.
Why it matters
Perfect metre, zero VIO drama. The app still needs this field even when fancy walk-assist exists.
Pending design
Two phones on taped lines (Path C)
Design fit ●●●●● · Official metre: pass
Tape owns distance. One phone sits on each line so feet are close in frame.
New risk is clock sync, not metres — one audio master, others slave to the beep.
Why it matters
Far-line px/cm kills single wide cameras. Dual phones fix geometry; they invent misses without one clock.
Pending design
Laser disto / survey wheel certify step
Design fit ●●●●○ · Official metre: pass
Faster certify than a floppy 20 m tape. Same product rule: the reading is typed (or later captured)
as the official length; the phone assist is not.
Why it matters
Ritual friction drops, legitimacy stays. Still not “the product” by itself — it unlocks trusted rooms.
Pending design
ARCore / ARKit walk assist (supported devices)
Design fit ●●●○○ · Official metre: assist only
Full VIO hit-test + two anchors + world map snapshot while moving, then park and watch.
Keep virtual objects near their anchors — a 20 m court needs two ends, not one.
Why it matters
Best in-phone map UX where Google/Apple AR runtimes exist. Useless as sole certifier on shiny gym floors.
Pending design
Non-AR walk assist (Camera + IMU)
Design fit ●●○○○ · Official metre: assist only
For phones without ARCore (e.g. RedMagic): CameraX preview + step/stride IMU estimate while walking
Line A → Line B. Explicitly drifts. Exists so unsupported devices are not blocked from the ritual.
Why it matters
You cannot ship Google’s ARCore device compatibility inside an APK.
An in-app walk helper keeps the pathway open without lying about centimetres.
Why the measure table exists
Preferred kit picture from the notes: tape (or laser) owns the metre.
Phones sit on the certified lines and watch feet — they do not invent the distance.
| Method (good ones only) |
Official metre |
Design fit |
What breaks if you skip honesty |
| AR walk + steel tape |
Pass |
●●●●● |
AR-only cm treated as truth → fan-fiction scores |
| Steel tape / laser only |
Pass |
●●●●○ |
No camera model of the lines → weaker watch act |
| Two phones on taped lines |
Pass |
●●●●● |
No shared audio clock → invented misses |
| Laser disto / survey wheel |
Pass |
●●●●○ |
Same as tape if the reading never enters evidence |
| ARKit / ARCore VIO alone |
Assist only |
●●●○○ |
~1–5% scale error; shiny floors; drift |
| Camera + IMU walk |
Assist only |
●●○○○ |
Stride error compounds over 20 m; not VIO |
Ignored on this board: phone GPS, dual-frequency GNSS, parked phone LiDAR/depth as 20.0 m.
See the full table on the notes.
Attempts so far
Each attempt is scored against a pathway above. More code will land here over time.
Attempted
CameraX + IMU walk assist
Pathway: Non-AR walk assist · Android alpha 0.1.2
Certify Course → walk Line A → Line B with camera preview and step/stride (or accel-peak) distance estimate.
Adjustable stride (~0.75 m default). Returns an assist estimate into Certify; saving still requires typed tape/laser metres.
- Ships in-app — no ARCore runtime required (RedMagic-class devices).
- Evidence can record
imuEstimatedMetres separately from certifiedMetres.
- Honest about drift; not a substitute for preferred walk+tape VIO.
Stub / partial
ARCore measure activity
Pathway: ARCore / ARKit walk assist · optional on supported devices
Optional ARCore Session host and course controller stubs. Manifest marks AR as optional
so unsupported phones still install. Full hit-test / GL loop and world-map snapshot still pending design work.
Attempted
Required tape / laser certify field
Pathway: Steel tape / laser only · also the certify step for every other path
Course cannot be saved without certified metres. AR/IMU estimates may display alongside;
they never become the official length. This is the minimum honest Path A metre.
Not attempted yet
Two phones + shared beep clock
Pathway: Path C · dual phone
No dual-phone sync, no per-line park flow, no master/slave audio clock in alpha.
Called out in-product as “Path C — coming later.”
Not attempted yet
Disto / survey-wheel capture UX
Pathway: Laser disto / survey wheel certify step
Same certify field today; no dedicated disto workflow, Bluetooth meter, or photo-of-reading evidence yet.
Sorry — this download sucks.
The Android alpha is a rough debug APK for exercising the attempts above, not a polished store build.
Sideload at your own risk; uninstall older alphas if install fights you.
If you still want it:
beep-alpha-debug.apk
· SHA-256
· current line: Camera + IMU walk assist + optional ARCore stub + required tape certify