EigerTek, makers of one of the most-affordable FIE approved 3-weapon scoring
machines, recently posted a few updates about the internal workings of their
hardware, and upgrades coming for the '06-'07 season, as mandated by the latest
FIE congres in Doha, Qatar.
The third paragraph is of particular interest, as it directly addresses the
biggest tangible result of the 2005 timing changes, ie: non-registered touches.

Hopefully other manufacturers will follow this precident and update their
machines in a similar fashion, allowing for the FIE requested reduction of the
flick, AND registering of valid straight hits!

"""
The new "Doha" chip incorporates the timing changes specified by the FIE at
their November 2005 meeting in Doha, Qatar (plus some other features).

The problem with FIE timing regulations is that the FIE people making the
changes don't seem to have any engineering background. All measured
requirements in the real world must have tolerances. Thus, while the FIE did
just add tolerances to several timings, they still haven't specified
"continuous contact" tolerances.

For example, when a foil comes in contact with a lame', the contact is "noisy"
or "dirty" with lots of extremely small electrical interruptions. There is no
FIE tolerance specification for the size of these "micro breaks." However, many
fencers have complained about non-registering touches under the new rules that
are the result of the foil tip bouncing along or off the lame' surface,
interrupting the valid touch timer.

For the Doha chip, we added noise filter logic to exclude micro-breaks smaller
than a specified duration while still adhering to the FIE timings. The exact
value that we came up with was the result of a lot of testing--and we wouldn't
want to spoil the fun for our competitors by posting these.

The bottom line is that we made sure to honor the FIE's wishes that a majority
of flicks will not register, but we also made sure that fencers rarely
encounter non-registering touches. We estimate that the frequency of
non-registering touches is reduced by about 90%. That's why we call the Doha
chip "fencer friendly."

"""

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