New Camera System Helps Soccer Refs Make the Right Calls

A kicked soccer ball can move 10 times faster than the human eye can perceive. Soccer referees are human. That might explain why the most popular game on earth has the least popular officials—they keep blowing it. One notorious incorrect call happened in the 2010 World Cup, when a clear goal by England’s Frank Lampard was disallowed in a loss to Germany. Luckily soccer refs are about to meet their silicon overlords. Just in time for this summer’s Confederations Cup matches in Brazil, the goal line will be monitored by machines.

Major soccer games already get covered by 20 or so cameras; the new rig, developed by the German company GoalControl, adds 14 more, attached high above on the stadium’s gantry. The cameras shoot the goal area at 500 frames per second. Image-processing software erases the players and ref and locates the ball in 3-D space every two milliseconds. Within a second after the ball crosses the line, the GoalControl system transmits an encrypted decision to a special device strapped to the ref’s wrist; the gadget vibrates and the screen flashes—way before that one dude can even start screaming “Goooaaaalll!!!” Hooligans, find another excuse to break bottles over each other.

Source: Wired

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