Got an Idea Today

[jsimmons]

I'm a programmer by trade, and got a crazy idea this morning. I have been toying with the notion of Duracoating my guns in camouflage, and was visiting various web sites looking at the astounding array of colors available. Yeah, they have various patterns and color combinations, but I was looking for something that more closely matched my own geographic area. failing to find anything resembling "Texas hill country", I had a flash of an idea.

Why not create a program that lets the user take pictures of his surroundings, and then evaluates those pictures to find a set of matching Duracoat colors that would best suit a camo paint scheme for the area. Well, I've worked on it all day, and am pretty far along. Here's a screen shot:

The idea is to allow you to load a picture, determine a color section (from 1 to 16 matching Duracoat colors), create a random camo pattern (digital, woodland, tiger stripe), and then create an image of the selected weapon to overlay on the picture you loaded (hopefully to scale).

What do you guys think?

Oh yeah - it will be a completely free application.

 

[REM 3200]

It's so good I can't see your rifle anywhere in the picture.

 

[jsimmons]

It's so good I can't see your rifle anywhere in the picture.

Look REAL hard at the fence gate.

 

[raven818]

Here....I Think?

 

[jsimmons]

Here....I Think?

I was just messin' with you.

I haven't got to that part of the program yet.

BTW, how log did you stare at the picture?

 

[zxrider_sa]

Now that's funny. Lol

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[Iggy]

You lay your gun down to take a dump and you may never find it again.

 

[G.Man]

First off Hello new to the site..Ive been working on a MARPAT for my 15-22, Just about done with it and will post in the picture thread later, but here are a few i took to see how well it worked. The dot sight has not been camod nor the exposed bolt... However i have now done the sight and bolt but have not taken pics yet..Its in the middle of each pic

GMan

 

[ragingyeti]

I saw this over on arfcom. I think it is a great idea. Count me in as a beta tester!

 

[Incredible Me]

great idea man!

 

[jsimmons]

First off Hello new to the site..Ive been working on a MARPAT for my 15-22, Just about done with it and will post in the picture thread later, but here are a few i took to see how well it worked. The dot sight has not been camod nor the exposed bolt... However i have now done the sight and bolt but have not taken pics yet..Its in the middle of each pic

GMan

Are you using duracoat on that? You did a great job I can barely see it.

 

[G.Man]

No Duracoat, just the Krylon type Camo paint. Ive done Duracoat before, Its a better paint, but still wears and chips. I'll just touch up when needed ...Thats the beauty of a camo job.

 

[raven818]

I was just messin' with you.

I haven't got to that part of the program yet.

BTW, how log did you stare at the picture?

Didn't...blew it up in Photoshop. Looked like it may have been hidden there. Tad weird.

 

[TATorg]

Too flip'in cool!

tat

 

[tacticool22]

That could be a great tool to camo clothing suppliers. You take a pic and send it in and they match the camo to your area.
Or you could do that yourself. Then you would get the best matched colors and maybe pattern to what is seen and not what you want to see because of the marketing hype.
Great job jsimmons

 

[jsimmons]

I've made significant strides toward completion in the last few days, and will be posting an updated screen shot in the next couple of days. I also contacted the Duracoat folks to see if they a) could provide me with better color samples, and b) were interested in the app. I haven't heard back from them yet...

 

[jsimmons]

Update:

I have the app building an image of the selected weapon, with the selected pattern, using the selected colors. I can also rotate and scale the weapon image overlaid on the selected landscape photo. You may also notice some layout changes.

Find the rifle:

 

[jsimmons]

Another update - this is the Advanced Visualization window:

 

[ragingyeti]

This is an amazing idea. I thought about doing something like this myself, until I remembered I have no programming skills. I would love to get my hands on a beta and help test it for you if you want.

 

[jsimmons]

This is an amazing idea. I thought about doing something like this myself, until I remembered I have no programming skills. I would love to get my hands on a beta and help test it for you if you want.

Well, the first release will be the beta test phase. Anyone who wants to can download it (it's going to be free and open-source). If someone is willing to walk over the hot coals known as "new software", they can be my guest.

 

[125JHP]

Where is the link?

 

[jsimmons]

Where is the link?

When it's ready, you guys will get a link.

 

[M Z]

I've got to say, this is a pretty cool idea.

As a fellow programmer, I've got to ask what are you using to do the development?

 

[jsimmons]

I've got to say, this is a pretty cool idea.

As a fellow programmer, I've got to ask what are you using to do the development?

Visual Studio 2010, C# 4.0, and it's a WinForms app. I don't see why it couldn't be run on a Linux box with Mono, but since I've never done it (and don't really have any interest in doing so), I can't say for sure. Since it requires .Net 4.0, and Mono doesn't support .Net 4.0 (that I know of), the code would probably have to be "massaged" a bit to get it to compile/run on that platform.

 

[SilverTree]

3d models

Great idea and progress!

I have 3d models that you can use to map the colors.
Let me know.

-ST

 

[Shaggs]

bump for awesome program

 

[Siccmade]

Cool software, cant wait to try it out

 

[jsimmons]

I found out today that it appears to compile/run fine on linux/mono.

 

[jsimmons]

Update for pistol owners

Look in the lower-right-hand corner. (I moved it there so it would be easier to see.)

 

[125JHP]

Simply Awesome!
Now I'm gonna hafta learn to use an airbrush