What a month!!!

I can't believe June is already there and here is another Gestic.org newsletter.
 
Thanks to Emmanuel, our front-end developer, there have been tons of updates! Opening the door to start implementing some of the features you have requested. I will try to list those improvements, but I will most probably miss many!
 
Also, we reach such a size that I can't anymore simply send those newsletters by mail. While it's a good news, it also requires a bit more work. I'm trying to now use flodesk to help with this task, let's see how it goes.
 
What's New and Improved?
 
  • Local Stores: We fixed the FaceToFace inventory retriever.  The inventory was not showing correctly and it was showing cards when they were not available and the other way around.
  • Home page speed: The lists on the home page are now loading only when you are opening them. No more need to load 10k cards from your collection when you only want to go check something, or access the scanner! This will reduce the data consumption on the mobile devices and improve the load speed on all.
  • Card list: The card list received a lot of improvements including, but only only, removing the transparency on the cards, hiding the name filter when it's not needed, improving the display on narrow devices, when filtering headers are removed when they are not relevant, and way more.
  • Set logos: Most if not all of the lists showing the set names are now also showing the logos!
  • Scanner Logic: The scanner logic has been a little bit adjusted to lower the priority of the border color detection. The low accuracy of the model was generating other calls to other models, slowing down the recognition process. We are still using it and we will still improve the border detection model, but we are now also looking for the possible match without the border result.
  • Scanned cards review: Some of you asked for it, it took more time that I would have liked, but it's there! You can now review the scanned cards and fix what has not been recognized (more below)
 
 
  • And way more: The navigation menu has been reworked, the link to share the lists is now easier to copy, add the option to click on the picture to capture the photo, etc.
 
 
 
 
Coming Next:
 
  • Automatic Scanning Trigger: I know I've been promising this for months and it's still not done :-/ I still want to do that, but unfortunately there are more important things to be done before.
 
  • Document Scanner: This will definitely arrive in June. You will soon be able to control external scanners, like Ricoh fi-8170, directly from the page, streaming the cards to the server, tens at a time with a single click!
  • Network upgrade: We are upgrading the bandwidth of our internet access as well as the network between the different equipment all with 2.5Gb connections or higher. (Some will get 10Gb). A service downtime will be required and will be communicated at least ten days in advance.
  • AI upgrade: We are upgrading our inference server by +1719% on the GPU side and by 3838% on the CPU side! Expect huge differences in the response time for loading your lists and identifying your cards!
 
As always, We Need Your Input!
 
  • Keep the Ideas Coming: Your feedback is crucial to Gestic's growth. What features are you enjoying? What can we improve? Many of our best features, like the card scanner, started as user suggestions! This month, the scan review page was a user suggestion. Thanks a lot for that.
  • Help Us Expand Our LGS Network: Don't see your favorite local game store on Gestic? Let us know, and we'll work on adding it! This makes it easier than ever to find the cards you need locally.
 
Highlighted Feature of the Month: scan review
 
Since we just deployed it, we wanted to show you how to use the scan review process. When scanning cards, it's possible that the scanner might not recognize them fully or correctly. The edition might be wrong, or anything else. Sometimes, there is more than one option and the scanner doesn't know which one to take. When this is the case, the name will show in black and the card will not be added to your list (Even if it will be displayed on the screen). Leaving the page will remove the card. The option to get it in is to review it. Let's consider this simple 2 card list
Image item
One has been recognized correctly (The Saproling) but unfortunately the Diregraf has failed. It can be because of the quality of the scan, or the difficulty to differentiate between two different arts. Using the "Review the Scans" option and navigating to the failed card you will get access to the results of the scan and you will be able to decide which is is the best option!
Image item
 
In this specific situation, the scanner was hesitating between the ISD and the PISD version of this card. Indeed, both have the same set symbol, the same name and the same number! The quality of the scan didn't allow the application to decide which of the two it was and therefore it failed. Simply edit the fields and use the magnifier, or click on the best proposal, to get this scan updated.
 
Going back to the scan page will now show you that the card is now fully recognized and it will stay in the list even if you leave the page! This is particularly useful when linked with an external scanner and you have tens of cards to review!
 
Since we just deployed this feature for the first time two days ago, we are very interested to hear back from you about it!  
 
 
 
Thanks for being an incredible part of Gestic's journey. Your support means the world to us,
 
Jean-Marc Spaggiari
 
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Montréal , QC H2M1N6, Canada