EpeeCam

❓ Setup & help

Camera setup

• Side view (best): put the phone/laptop 2.5–4 m to the side of your fencing line, lens at hip height (≈1 m), landscape. You move left/right across the picture. Your whole body, feet to raised hand and the blade, must stay in frame.
• Front view: camera 3–4 m straight ahead (where your opponent would stand). Advancing/retreating is estimated from how big you look, so it is less precise than side view.
• Good even light, plain background, fitted clothes. Avoid other people in the frame.
• Calibrate: stand in en garde and hold still for ~1.5 s until the bar fills. Recalibrate if you move the camera.
• Optional tip marker: wrap 3–5 cm of bright pink, lime or orange tape on the épée tip (or stick) and pick the colour in calibration. The app then follows your real blade angle.
• Use a stick, foil-length dowel or a rubber training blade indoors and clear the space around you. Never point a real blade at the screen or people.

What the camera reads

• Advance / retreat: your hips moving along the line (× the footwork scale, so a small room still covers the piste).
• Lunge: your feet spreading beyond the en-garde stance.
• Extension / thrust: weapon arm straightening.
• Parry: weapon hand moving quickly across the body (4, quarte) or outward (6, sixte) with a bent arm. Holding the hand clearly to one side keeps that line closed.
• Aim: hand high = mask, level = body / arm, low = thigh / foot. Aim assist then steers the point.

Keyboard / touch

→ / D advance · ← / A retreat · Space / L lunge (hold to stay down) · K / J extend arm · Q parry 4 · E parry 6 · W / ↑ aim high · S / ↓ aim low · C camera view · R restart · Esc menu. On a phone, use the on-screen buttons.

Épée rules used

Whole body is target, no right of way. The first touch lights its lamp; the other fencer has 45 ms (40–50, adjustable) to also hit: then both lamps light (double touch, a point each). Doubles are annulled in the priority minute and at the last touch (4–4 / 14–14). Both feet over your end line = touch against. Pool: 5 touches / 3 min. DE: 15 touches / three 3-min periods with 1-min breaks. A tie at time gives one extra minute with priority drawn by lot.

Two devices

Open 📺 Big-screen display on a laptop/TV and 📱 Phone as camera on the phone, then scan the QR or type the code. The phone tracks you; the big screen runs the bout. Both need internet for pairing.