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Microcap & Penny Stocks : QuesTec.com (QSTI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bruce Cullen who wrote (2360)	4/9/2001 8:31:58 PM
From: Bruce Cullen	Respond to of 2393

<font color=green>http://www.Boston.Com - Boston Globe News April 9, 2001 AP BOSTON (AP) The technology built to monitor planes and missiles soon will be tracking Pedro Martinez's fastballs. Cameras and other gizmos designed to help umpires tell whether they're getting the hang of baseball's strict interpretation of the strike zone were installed Monday at Fenway Park by QuesTec. There are no plans to replace an umpire's judgment with that of QuesTec's "Umpire Information System." But developers of the technology and baseball officials say some objective feedback, which umpires can see on laptops after a game, will help make for more consistent calls. "The only feedback available to umpires has been the opinions of people that invariably have a worse angle on the pitch than they do," said Paul Baim, an engineer and baseball fan who has worked on the technology for QuesTec and its collaborator, Atlantic Aerospace. The system, an upgrade of technology used on Fox TV broadcasts, pinpoints a pitch within two-fifths of an inch. Umpires will be able to view pitch data, video clips and batter snapshots on their laptops after a game. The final display format has yet to be determined. QuesTec began testing the technology at a fall league last year and at spring training in Arizona. The company, which has a five-year contract with baseball, hopes to begin using the system at six yet-to-be determined major league parks by May. The system installed at Fenway marks the first time it has been onsite at a Major League park for testing, though Fenway won't necessarily be one of the six parks where it will be tested first in game situations. "Anything that can help us do our job better obviously is a good thing, as long as it's realistic and really can help," umpire Jim Joyce said before Monday's Colorado Rockies-Cardinals game in St. Louis. "This job is hard enough and everybody's against us anyway. "We try every day to be as close to perfect as possible and if this helps us get a little bit closer, so be it," he said. Umpire Bill Miller said he'd prefer the technology get a dry run in the minor leagues. "Not to say everybody shouldn't train on the job, but the minors are where they're training people to become umpires," he said. Ralph Nelson, baseball's vice president of umpiring, says the product will be used to help umpires, not evaluate them. "We don't intend to say one umpire's better than another because of how the QuesTec read his strike zone," Nelson said. "We want to be able to use it so we have consistency, which is what the clubs expect and which is what the players expect." First developed for the military, QuesTec's technology found a post-Cold War home in the sports world. The company's products include tennis and golf "ProView" broadcast enhancement technology, and "PitchTrax," used by Fox and several major league coaching staffs. The new version of PitchTrax being developed for umpires knows how to factor in the stance of the batter, whose crouch can raise or lower the strike zone, and even how to ignore birds or hot-dog wrappers that move through the field of view. Umpires may seek postgame advice from a computer, but don't expect to see them consulting one on the field. "I think the human element in the umpires is as much an element of the sport as hitting and running," Nelson said. AP NEWS The Associated Press News Service Copyright 2001 The Associated Press All Rights Reserved The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.