Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Tom Brunkow from Weigh In:
Q: For those who haven’t heard of it, what is the best way to describe Weigh In?
A: Weigh In turns any mobile device into a convenient tool for measuring and weighing fish in the real world. Weigh In calculates the weight of your trophy fish you just hooked. Your camera lets the app know the length of the fish from the nose to the tail. The user then identifies the species, allowing the app to calculate the weight of the fish. The user can then send the image with those details directly to the taxidermist through the app to start working on getting that trophy ready for mounting. The best part is that the fish can get thrown back and keep swimming, making both conservationists and anglers happy.
Q: How did you get the idea for such kind of an app?
A: Every Father’s Day, my whole family makes the pilgrimage out for a weekend of walleye fishing. One year my grandfather pulled in a massive walleye. At the time we didn’t have a measuring tool to take an exact measurement so we resorted to taking a picture of the fish, with the pole as a reference. Shortly after, my dad caught one just a bit bigger. Soon after that my uncle caught an even bigger one. It was a beautiful moment to be apart of on Father’s Day…except for they fact that we didn’t have a way to back up our fish tales. Thats when the idea hit me: we needed a tool that was always with us to accurately capture the catch and the memory.
Later, my grandfather brought up that he wished we had mounted all three of those fish together instead of throwing them back. With Weigh In, you can decide after the fact what you want to do with your trophy so that you always have the best of both worlds.
Recommended: Q: Can you give us insights into your features?
A: Weigh In has three great products: a measurement tool, a tool to catalog all of your catches, and a predictive tool that tells you when the fish are going to bite.
Weigh In gives your mobile device the power to measure and weigh any fish in the real world with the tool you always keep in your pocket. It’s like a fishing time machine: Weigh In lets you relive the excitement of any catch by automatically tracking and cataloging all the fish you’ve caught. Weigh In also taps into the real time weather data, letting you know the peak times throughout the day that fish are going to be active. Weigh In also gives each day a “score” for how well the predicted bite will be. This way, if you are on the fence between getting out on the water or doing something else, you can see what you may be missing (or not missing) out on.
Q: What type of technology do you use? How accurate is it?
A: Weigh In uses a technology called visual inertial odometry (“VIO”). VIO analyzes camera data to identify landmarks, such as the nose and tail of the fish, that it can use to measure how the device is moving in space. Motion sensor data then fills in any blanks.
We have been able to achieve extremely precise positioning information… most of the time. The reality is is that our users are fishing: balancing a beer, a fishing hook, and a phone while trying to take a picture on a boat that may be rocking with the waves and the weight distribution as those on the boat run around to reel in a heavy fish. The accuracy of the output, is contingent on the accuracy of the information that goes into the app. And it can be tough to hold the phone steady while the fish is biting. We continue to work on these imprecisions and refine our formulas to make it even more accurate.
Q: What can we expect from Weigh In in the future?
A: We have a lot of great feature improvements in the pipeline. We are going to continue to make measuring more precise. We are also working on our AI and machine learning software to detect fish from the camera and measure it without any user interaction. This will improve measurement accuracy when the user is in a compromised situation, which you often are when you are fishing. Along the same lines we are training our model so we can detect the particular species of fish.
Our app is for the fishing community and love hearing feedback. Please use our app and let us know what tools you need so we can build them out for you (and use it ourselves).
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