Little Big Mining Log - Miners Tool (OCR)

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Ido

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Poland, Warsaw
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Ido Starlit Sunrider
Little Big Mining Log
Mining tracking tool with OCR capability​


The purpose of this tool is to help Miners track their claims. It performs image recognition on the mining claim found to record depth size type and position. The miner can then plot his data on top of a map so he can return again to the spots where mining was most lucky to them.

With the most popular software out of commision post VU 10.0 i have took upon myself the task of providing a new feature rich tool to the miners of calypso. Development started on the 21st May 2010, and i will use this thread to report the progress collect ideas, request for features etc. This tool is for all of you so your feedback is most welcome.


Current Planned Feature List:
- OCR scanning of deed to extract (depth,size,type,position)
- Collect deed data into mining runs for future reference.
- Plot selected runs on a map
- Filter data by time size ore type depth
- Take into account mining amps to produce un-amped claim sizes

I ask You to share your ideas for the tool and help me make it the best it can be .. after all the tool is for all of you.

Current Status:
CLOSED BETA v0.3 - Beta testers wanted (see below)
The Image Recognition and Claim Deed Scanning is implemented
- it needs verification on a large scale to fine tune it for best operation in all cases. I might have to do some image manipulation with contrast colors etc...

Collection of mining deeds is in place
- Both on server and client side with data synchronization

Map interface is in place
- Pan Zoom on custom maps and display color coded claim data

Etensive Filter selection
- Allows you to filter data in all possible ways by type, size, depth, date, coordinates

Tool selection for altering claim size
- Not yet implemented but coming soon

Interested CLOSED BETA applicants please
send an e-mail to littlebigmininglog@digital-envision.com
with a short description of yourself and mining expirience.
Candidates will be carefuly evaluated and a only a handfull
will be selected.

Requirements:
Drops min 50 bombs/day
Registered MSN user


Best Regards
Ido Sunrider
 
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Last night I had a priviledge to to test the OCR that will be used in future Ido's tool and I must say that for now all works nice - ingame you just need to open a claim deed and keep it active and after pressing one button all info from the deed is saved in tool. Good start, so I'll be looking forward for further progress.

I know Ido for quite a while and I already used many of his trading tools - they all work great and made my daily trading activities much easier. If the Little Big Mining Log will be at least as good as all the tools that Ido wrote for C.O.R.E, then I'm sure all miners will be very gratefull :cool:
 
Little Big Mining Log
Mining tracking tool with OCR capability​


Requirements:
Drops min 50 bombs/day
Registered MSN user
Able to save a screenshot in BMP format using PAINT :p

So if i have problem with saving SS in my Win 7 PAINT (only black screen pop up) I can´t test this program... or u make working it in W7 ?
 
So if i have problem with saving SS in my Win 7 PAINT (only black screen pop up) I can´t test this program... or u make working it in W7 ?


black screen is due to using desktop thingy i forgot the name off, the one that makes the desktop look nice and transparent. Run in window mode and you should be able to get screenshots. or just search for black screenshot i guess
 
So if i have problem with saving SS in my Win 7 PAINT (only black screen pop up) I can´t test this program... or u make working it in W7 ?

You can also use fraps to take screenshots, works perfectly.
 
You can also use fraps to take screenshots, works perfectly.

that will also produce the same black screen. atleast i think it will.
 
(edit: nevermind. just gl with the project)
 
Last edited:
Just a quickie

Would you keep records of what was found where?

If so then you would have the ultimate, and worth a fortune database!

Rgsd

Ace
 
Just a quickie

Would you keep records of what was found where?

If so then you would have the ultimate, and worth a fortune database!

Rgsd

Ace

I think that's the whole point of any of the tools in development (or those already developed). Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say here :)
 
Just a quickie

Would you keep records of what was found where?

If so then you would have the ultimate, and worth a fortune database!

Rgsd

Ace

I dont see why not, i want that feature atleast :) could even be a db online which ofcourse should be voluntarily. But if you want to dl you need to keep that setting on sort of.
 
I think that's the whole point of any of the tools in development (or those already developed). Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say here :)

Yep that was my point. If they did keep all the records for themselves and i was involved with providing details as well, i would want access to the whole database.

Rgds

Ace
 
Yep that was my point. If they did keep all the records for themselves and i was involved with providing details as well, i would want access to the whole database.

Rgds

Ace

There's a couple of things when providing a server-wise storing of the claims :

- Bandwidth usage for the one hosting it (also, hardware). This is not free, so they would need to charge you a fee for using the program. Also, if the server goes down for some reason, then you can't upload your claims anymore.

- Some users would not want to share their claims with everyone, so there needs to be an option to not upload your claims to the server. Problem with that, is if you're not uploading to the server, you'd need a secondary database local to the user or something like that.
 
So if i have problem with saving SS in my Win 7 PAINT (only black screen pop up) I can´t test this program... or u make working it in W7 ?

using win 7 or vista with desktop thingy enabled?


Im using windows 7 with areo transparency and all the bells and wistles .. and there is no problem with saving the screenshots to paint or photoshop just press prtscr or alt+prtscr and then ctrl+v in paint.

If you cant take screenshots in bitmap format for me to verify why OCR is not working in the given case i might not need your help for this stage of testing .. in future stages however for sure.

Just a quickie

Would you keep records of what was found where?

If so then you would have the ultimate, and worth a fortune database!

Rgsd

Ace

There's a couple of things when providing a server-wise storing of the claims :

- Bandwidth usage for the one hosting it (also, hardware). This is not free, so they would need to charge you a fee for using the program. Also, if the server goes down for some reason, then you can't upload your claims anymore.

- Some users would not want to share their claims with everyone, so there needs to be an option to not upload your claims to the server. Problem with that, is if you're not uploading to the server, you'd need a secondary database local to the user or something like that.

Yes i plan to store all claims on a web database. The tool will be distributed free and you will be able to track and view your own claims overlay them on the map etc.

There will be paid for features allwoing users to vied data from the whole database or operate in ghost mode so their claims will not be shared.

There are reasons why i decided to have things this way...

1: I wanted to produce a tool that would replace the no-longer-working tools available before 10.0
2: I wanted to release it for free to vast masses of users ...
3: Releasing for free is nice and all but development costs me time + some hosting fees etc... thats why i decided to have bonus paid for features.

Now the free users will get a great tool for free :) in return i'll colelct their data for which some users might decide to pay me.
If you dont want other users to use your data you can instead of using the tool for free pay me to operate in ghost mode.. that way you pay me for the time i spent directly.

I believe most will agree this is a fair way to handle this issue + it gives me extra motivation to make the tool as perfect as it can be!


Small update:
Today a lot of modifications have been made to the OCR code.
Many tirals have been made and we have yet to find a case when OCR fails ... thats where i need your help! apply for CLOSED BETA now ;)
 
There's a couple of things when providing a server-wise storing of the claims :

- Bandwidth usage for the one hosting it (also, hardware). This is not free, so they would need to charge you a fee for using the program. Also, if the server goes down for some reason, then you can't upload your claims anymore.

A server today cost like nothing, and the bandwidth needed is not a whole lot either. Even if the program had 1k users i can almost bet the monthly bandwidh wont go over 1 gig which is nothing what so ever today.
 
A server today cost like nothing, and the bandwidth needed is not a whole lot either. Even if the program had 1k users i can almost bet the monthly bandwidh wont go over 1 gig which is nothing what so ever today.

Simple calculation:

to store 1 claim you need around hmm 22 bytes of data ... lets add in some overhead make that a nice round 32 bytes ...

Now imageine 1000 users like you say .. each mine 100 bombs a day each get 25% hit ratio after 1 year the database will contain 1000*25*365 claims

that is 9,125,000 claims ... if one would ask the server to retreive that data to plor it over the map it would use 292,000,000 bytes (# of claims * 32 bytes per claim) hmm am i right to say 278 MB of data is quite a lot ... now lets be real and assume the smart developer would not send all claims but do some data agregation and subdevide queries based on region etc etc ...

But lets play dumb for a moment ... 1 data request of 292MB *1000 users = 292 GB per day * 30 days in a month ~9 TB of bandwidth :p

of course this is an exageration noone in a right mind will send all that data to a user at one time ...

EDIT: for simplicity 1Kbyte = 1000 byte instead of 1024
 
A server today cost like nothing, and the bandwidth needed is not a whole lot either. Even if the program had 1k users i can almost bet the monthly bandwidh wont go over 1 gig which is nothing what so ever today.

When you don't have to pay for it, sure it doesn't cost a lot. Feel free to send the cash to Ido ;)

As for the bandwitch, Ido just explained it quite well in his last post.
 
Simple calculation:

to store 1 claim you need around hmm 22 bytes of data ... lets add in some overhead make that a nice round 32 bytes ...

Now imageine 1000 users like you say .. each mine 100 bombs a day each get 25% hit ratio after 1 year the database will contain 1000*25*365 claims

that is 9,125,000 claims ... if one would ask the server to retreive that data to plor it over the map it would use 292,000,000 bytes (# of claims * 32 bytes per claim) hmm am i right to say 278 MB of data is quite a lot ... now lets be real and assume the smart developer would not send all claims but do some data agregation and subdevide queries based on region etc etc ...

But lets play dumb for a moment ... 1 data request of 292MB *1000 users = 292 GB per day * 30 days in a month ~9 TB of bandwidth :p

of course this is an exageration noone in a right mind will send all that data to a user at one time ...

EDIT: for simplicity 1Kbyte = 1000 byte instead of 1024

well a dew sending ALL data EVERY day to the users havent been coding very smart :p You would only update with the new stuff added except for the first time you dl it. And i also doubt there will be 1k users :p And anyway, bandwidth today is almost nearly free of charge :p atleast in sweden ;P
 
When you don't have to pay for it, sure it doesn't cost a lot. Feel free to send the cash to Ido ;)

As for the bandwitch, Ido just explained it quite well in his last post.
i got my own server i pay for already :)

*edit* This forum requires that you wait 30 seconds between posts. Please try again in 8 seconds. xD
 
i got my own server i pay for already :)

*edit* This forum requires that you wait 30 seconds between posts. Please try again in 8 seconds. xD

thats great...

but please stay on topic
 
There will be paid for features allwoing users to vied data from the whole database or operate in ghost mode so their claims will not be shared.

There are reasons why i decided to have things this way...

1: I wanted to produce a tool that would replace the no-longer-working tools available before 10.0
2: I wanted to release it for free to vast masses of users ...
3: Releasing for free is nice and all but development costs me time + some hosting fees etc... thats why i decided to have bonus paid for features.

Now the free users will get a great tool for free :) in return i'll colelct their data for which some users might decide to pay me.
If you dont want other users to use your data you can instead of using the tool for free pay me to operate in ghost mode.. that way you pay me for the time i spent directly.

I believe most will agree this is a fair way to handle this issue + it gives me extra motivation to make the tool as perfect as it can be!

wow, this seems like a great little tool, dont know how i missed this thread.
i would like to make a suggestion, based a bit on how entropia tracker currently works. atm you are asking people to share their most precious mining data in return for the use of the tool, and you can sell the data to cover your costs.

i think it would be more attractive to people if those that shared their data got access to others data, and those that dont want to share data but want access to the database pay for the service. 711 might be interested in hosting your database in the same way as he hosts entropia tracker. of course i have no idea if this model would cover your costs but i hope you would consider this alternative.
 
wow, this seems like a great little tool, dont know how i missed this thread.
i would like to make a suggestion, based a bit on how entropia tracker currently works. atm you are asking people to share their most precious mining data in return for the use of the tool, and you can sell the data to cover your costs.

i think it would be more attractive to people if those that shared their data got access to others data, and those that dont want to share data but want access to the database pay for the service. 711 might be interested in hosting your database in the same way as he hosts entropia tracker. of course i have no idea if this model would cover your costs but i hope you would consider this alternative.

Thanks Fallen Angel for your suggestions. As for DB hosting if the information is to be kept private it will be kept on my companies private servers... if all data is to be made public i might negotiate with 711.

The final setup is not yet decided.

All depends on how much work the tool requires from me in the end .. i got some core functionality for OCR and logging done still need to work on plotting data on the map local buffering server synchronization secure login system etc etc...

Which features will be free and which will be paid for and the cost will be decided later during development depending on Publics interest and marketing strategy ... you might find the fee to unlock all the features negligable comparing to the standard expenses of mining and gaining access to "fertile" grounds information quite worth it.

Still nothing is set in stone and these details have to be worked out ... it was just my initial idea.

Ido
 
Update:

Mining Tool is now properly Grabing and recording Claims in the DB.

We are still looking for more BETA Testers. (see first post)

Closed beta phase is expected to start late this week.

Ido
 
CLOSED BETA launched today!! 27-05-2010

All selected beta testers received an e-mail with a download link for the tool.

If you sent us an e-mail and have not reveived any response it means your e-mail has never reached our inbox in that case please try to re-apply.

Closed beta remains open to applicants however we will hand pick the candidates that will be involved.

We aim at proving our OCR solution 100% effective before moving to a public release. In future test phases we will release map overlay software secure login system, seperate run tracking and more.

Best Regards
Ido Sunrider
 
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Request for comments on wanted features !!!

Today a friend miner suggested to for us to release a simplified version of the tool that would collect the data from the game using screenshots (the feature already available in our tool and under stress testing as we speak) and later simply print out mining reports into text files seperated into runs...

Similar to what some miners do (and some dont do due to lazyness) in their blogs - talking about hit patterns. So the tool would collect hit patern and ore name/size data into a text file (separate text file for each run) so you can use it later for your blog.

I can see this feature as a quick release (possible within a few days for public use) of course this would not be the final product im aiming at but a simple logger which my friend claims is what most miners really need...

So please comment on this functionality idea if it is what you are looking for and if not please post what features would be welcome from your perspective.

Ido
 
Today a friend miner suggested to for us to release a simplified version of the tool that would collect the data from the game using screenshots (the feature already available in our tool and under stress testing as we speak) and later simply print out mining reports into text files seperated into runs...

Similar to what some miners do (and some dont do due to lazyness) in their blogs - talking about hit patterns. So the tool would collect hit patern and ore name/size data into a text file (separate text file for each run) so you can use it later for your blog.

I can see this feature as a quick release (possible within a few days for public use) of course this would not be the final product im aiming at but a simple logger which my friend claims is what most miners really need...

So please comment on this functionality idea if it is what you are looking for and if not please post what features would be welcome from your perspective.

Ido


sounds nice, would be nice if you could do some mean/average calc on how the run went using the deposit sizes. also testing the beta so far. :) just gotta disable desktop composition thingy as that prevent screenshots :(
 
sounds nice, would be nice if you could do some mean/average calc on how the run went using the deposit sizes. also testing the beta so far. :) just gotta disable desktop composition thingy as that prevent screenshots :(

Can you explain what is the "desktop compostion thingy" you mention maybe there is a easy way around it ... your description however is very unclear?

what kind of calculations would you like the tool to perform ?
 
Taken from msdn.microsoft.com:

The desktop composition feature, introduced in Windows Vista, fundamentally changes the way applications display pixels on the screen. When desktop composition is enabled, individual windows no longer draw directly to the screen or primary display device as they did in previous versions of Windows. Instead, their drawing is redirected to off-screen surfaces in video memory, which are then rendered into a desktop image and presented on the display.

Desktop composition is performed by the Desktop Window Manager (DWM). Through desktop composition, DWM enables visual effects on the desktop as well as various features such as glass window frames, 3-D window transition animations, Windows Flip and Windows Flip3D, and high resolution support.
 
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