[Tony Curcio]

The Matty box has nothing to do with reaction times. It was used to avoid breaking out. Photo cells or lasers are feasible, but countermeasures are equally feasible, such as flooding the tree with light, regular or infrared. If you really want to know more, start by Googling "Matty box" and follow the threads from there. Below is the summary from the actual US Patent for the original Matty box, which has been posted on this forum and others many times.



Drag Race Analyzer United States Patent # 5,051,935 - Date Awarded: 9/24/91

An apparatus for automatically and continuously projecting an elapsed time in which a vehicle traveling over a racecourse will complete the course, wherein a difference between the projected elapsed time and a predicted time is continuously displayed to a driver of the vehicle, so that the driver can adjust the speed of the vehicle as needed during a race to approximate the predicted time. A plurality of magnets are mounted on a drive shaft of the vehicle in a circumferentially spaced relationship. A pickup coil is mounted adjacent to the magnets to detect movement of the magnets past the coil for measuring the distance traveled by the vehicle. A computer is electrically connected to the pickup coil and collects data from the coil for continuously calculating a difference between the projected elapsed time and the predicted time during a race. A motion switch is electrically connected to the computer and detects forward movement of the vehicle at the start of a race for automatically actuating the computer. A light gage is electrically connected to the computer and includes a set of red lights and a set of green lights which, when illuminated, indicate that the projected elapsed time is faster or slower, respectively, than the predicted time in 0.01 second increments. When one or more of the red or green lights are illuminated, the driver can decrease or increase the speed of the vehicle, respectively, so that the elapsed time approximates the predicted time at the end of a race. Inventors: Matty; Richard D. (xxxxx Xxxxxx Rd., Marshallville, OH xxxxx) Appl. No.: 356845 Filed: May 25, 1989