NFL Considers Ball-Tracking Chips for Accuracy [Nfl]

The NFL wants to insert a tracking chip into footballs so that it could scale down on human error and give players fair and accurate spots. The most recent system could solve many potential headaches and arguments during a game

From end zone to end zone, an NFL field is precisely 3,600 inches, and it’s easy enough for referees to spot a ball precisely when action stays inside the bounds of play. But when players take the pigskin out of bounds, refs must watch where the 11-inch-long ball crossed the sideline and then approximate that spot 70 feet, 9 inches away, back near the middle of the sector.

NFL brass thinks it may do better.

The league is reportedly in discussions with Cairos Technologies, a German manufacturer that makes a speciality of micro-tracking systems, about how chips could possibly be implanted in official NFL game balls. It’s an intriguing idea that will surely reduce on some measure of human error, but for football traditionalists it’ll be another bit of ammo for the argument that expanded tech is fouling up the sport’s integrity.

Cairos has done something similar prior to now with FIFA soccer balls. The Adidas Teamgeist II was unveiled in late 2007 and featured an internal chip as component of a larger ” Goal Line Technology” effort, something that would have recently proven handy, whenever you ask English soccer star Frank Lampard. Nevertheless, the tech hasn’t truly caught on with international fútbol, so American football seems next on Cairos’ list.

Unlike in soccer, where the ball must completely cross the goal line to be a sound score, NFL rules dictate that the ball must only break the plane of the top zone to be ruled a touchdown. And as Mike Jones and Kevin Dyson showed us on the general play of Super Bowl XXXIV, a whole season really can come right down to a number of inches.

Photo: Flickr/yourdon, CC

Wired.com has been expanding the hive mind with technology, science and geek culture news since 1995.

Source

This post is tagged: accuracy, BallTracking, chips, considers, nfl