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Pastimes : Soccer World Cup MLS Euro Champions League etc
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To: Jon Khymn who wrote (2081)6/25/2002 12:44:46 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell  Read Replies (1) of 5130
 
I think what stalls technology in sports, like in other areas of life, is the ability for immediate widespread, inexpensive application of it. That being said, I *do* think a limited form of sensor technology is widespread and inexpensive. For example, most road races require the participants to tie sensors on their sneakers so they can be electronically timed and in some cases paced.

In soccer, the sensor could fit in a small pouch in the front part of the shorts where the belt buckle would be. The ball could be coated with some sort of easily tracked material. If you want to get really high-tech, the tracking system should be able to automatically tell by changes in shape (or pressure) that the ball was kicked. Factor in sensor data from who kicked it combined with player positioning, and offsides calls (or goals, or balls out of bounds) would be simple and accurate.

A simple laptop could handle processing the date. The killer would be the tracking system. Someone would have to develop a system that could cover an entire soccer field including the nets. No problem for the professional leagues but I don't think you'll see it at any lower level for quite some time. However, as we should all know by now, technology is a question of when, not if.

- Jeff

P.S. ESPN already has their own pseudo tracking system for calling balls and strikes in their baseball games. I've heard no talk at all about replacing umpires with sensors but it seems to me, a technology buff, a no-brainer.
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