Written by Nima, 2021 Cohort
A 1957 Canadian hockey broadcast marked the first use of instant replay, a technique that would soon revolutionize sports broadcasting and officiating. Since then, most major sports have adopted rules to allow officials to consult video feeds to correct calls. In recent years we have seen in administering and officiating sports, technology can succeed where humans may not. This will guarantee fair judgment of the performance and make it fair for all the athletes. Here are two exciting new technologies being used in the sports industry today.
Timing Systems
Nobody uses a stopwatch when timing a race anymore. This means that differences in reaction time no longer affect the consistency of a racing event. In many races today, the starter pistol is linked to a clock. Once the pistol goes off, the clock immediately starts timing the race. On the other hand, swimming uses a touchpad placed at the finish lanes as well as wearable inertial sensors to determine performance. Many racing events also use laser beams and photographs to determine winners. The results of timing systems are often provided to the nearest thousand of a second. This technique was established to eliminate insignificant errors.
Sensor Tools
Sensor tools are often used to analyze whether a goal is valid or not. It is often used in cases where the naked eye cannot truly tell if a ball went past the goal line. Different sports use varying sensor tools. For example, cricket’s Hawk-Eye technology analyzes sound to determine if the ball smashed into the bat before it was caught. Hawk-Eye is also used to determine where the ball would have landed if it had not hit a player’s foot. This establishes whether the ball was unfairly blocked from striking the wicket. On the other hand, tennis sensor tools use laser beams to determine whether the tennis ball went out of bounds or not. Sensor technologies help to accurately determine the position of the ball at a given time. Time has really changed the process of how sports are held.
So now, in your opinion do you think there will come a day in which technologies can fully replace humans in sports? We have to wait a bit to figure out how far technology can go in replacing humans as sports officials.