Pétanque Scanner
Two boules either side of the jack, a metre or two out, and your eye can't call it: at that range you cannot compare two distances. Start a scan, aim at the jack, hold the phone above each boule, and the app shows how far each boule is — drawn in augmented reality right on the ground.
How it works
1Place the jack
Leave the boules where they are, open the app and film the ground around the game. Then aim at the jack from three angles, one step aside between shots: it is placed.
2Go over the boules
Film the boules from three spots — several at once is fine — then hold the phone above each one: the measure locks by itself, a padlock shows it.
3Read the ranking
Confirm: the ranking appears seen from above, nearest first, with the edge-to-edge gap of each boule. Nobody has to crouch down.
What it gives you
Nobody crouches down
Every boule is measured against the jack, and the ranking is drawn on the pitch itself, not buried in a table. No one has to kneel down to settle it.
Works with no signal
Detection runs on your phone. No pitch is too far from a cell tower for the app to work.
Nothing leaves your phone
No server, no account, no sign-up. Camera frames never leave the device.
No subscription
Free every day. If you want unlimited, it is a one-off purchase — nothing monthly.
What if your phone has no augmented reality?
There is a photo mode. Hold the phone flat above the game, take a single photo, and the app places the jack and the boules on it: the closest one is circled in green, with the gap to the next one. No augmented reality needed — a camera is enough.
On a device without AR support the app switches to this mode by itself: no menu, nothing to set up. On every other phone the photo mode can be picked right from the home screen, which helps when there is no room to walk around the game. The trade-off is plain: one photo is a less reliable measurement than a scan from several angles.
The app in pictures
What it does not do
Better said upfront, so the pitch holds no surprises.
It carries no official weight
In competition, the referee's measurement is the only one that counts. This is built for games among friends, on holiday or at the club.
It needs to see the boules
Low sun, harsh shade or a boule half sunk into gravel and detection gets considerably harder.
The jack is the hard part
Small, and often hidden behind a boule. It is what trips the app up most often — a "magnet" mode lets you nudge it back into place by hand.
Within a few millimetres, get the tape measure out
The app settles gaps you can see. When two boules sit almost the same distance from the jack — whether that is ten centimetres or two metres away — the gap falls below what the measurement can resolve, and only a real tape measure will separate them.
What it costs
The app is free, with 3 scans a day. You can watch an optional ad to refill them, or buy lifetime Premium once: unlimited measurements and no more ads. There is no subscription, and no purchase is needed to use the app.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use it in competition?
No. In an official game, only the referee's measurement counts. The app is built for friendly games, when nobody has a tape measure to hand.
How accurate is it really?
The reading goes down to the millimetre, but accuracy is another matter: a few millimetres at best, when the boules are clearly visible and you have walked around the game. During the scan, the “Jack accuracy” gauge shows whether the jack is well placed, and a boule is only measured once its padlock shows. If the gauge stays low, tap “Find the jack again” and aim at it once more.
Does it work offline?
Yes, completely. Boule detection runs on the phone and there is no server involved.
Are my photos sent anywhere?
No. No image ever leaves the device, and the app asks you to create no account.
Which phones are supported?
The augmented-reality scan needs an Android with ARCore or an iPhone with ARKit, which covers the large majority of models released since 2018. Phones without it fall back to photo mode automatically, so the app stays usable.
Do I need to place a marker on the ground?
No. The app locates itself on the pitch from the camera and the phone's motion sensors.
How it was built
Boule detection runs on a vision model trained purely on synthetic images, and the measurement comes from triangulating accumulated rays. I wrote up the whole approach — including the experiments that did not work.
Available on Android and iOS
A question or a problem with the app? Write to me: contact@ludiven-studio.fr
See also: privacy policy · terms of use