Some students of mine were analyzing a video clip using Videopoint, and none
of their numbers made any sense. The data table for an object clearly
moving steadily from left to right would yield numbers which increased and
decreased, sometimes even going negative. My first reaction was that
possibly they had been in too much of a hurry, and were only "clicking" in
the general vicinity of the object they were following.
Nope - the computer was making complete hash out of both the time stamp
and the cursor position. Otherwise the software seemed to be doing its
thing as expected. Move them to another computer, and it works fine. It
turns out that this particular computer has several add-on peripherals:
sound card, video capture, external CD-ROM, ethernet. Apparently Videopoint
was competing for interupt codes with one or more of these devices, or was
somehow unable to read the display format.
Has anybody else on this list had a similar experience?
George Spagna **********************************************
Department of Physics * *
Randolph-Macon College * And so some day, *
P.O. Box 5005 * The mighty ramparts of the mighty universe *
Ashland, VA 23005-5505 * Ringed round with hostile force *
* Will yield and face decay *
phone: (804) 752-7344 * and come crumbling to ruin. *
FAX: (804) 752-4724 * - Lucretius, De Rerum Natura *
e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu **********************************************
URL: www.rmc.edu/~gspagna/gspagna.html