Hawkeye and smartwatches. How is technology changing sports?

It may seem that where strength, endurance and technique matter most, technologies don’t have much to do. However, they are changing sports more than we might think. And not just the professional ones.

Harder, better, faster, stronger. That’s what sports have always been about. It’s all about pushing your limits, breaking records, winning. Technologies add to this set: more precise – although that’s not the only way they support athletes, referees or fans. “Things have changed in many aspects. Everything is faster, stronger and more intense. Innovations, in turn, help the game also become safer, fairer and more comfortable for the spectator, and, for those extra passionate, provide plenty of data for more accurate analysis,” write the authors of the report “New Technologies in Sports” (Startup Poland, 2022).

Was he offside or not?

In 2016, for the first time during a soccer match, VAR, a system of Video Assistant Referee (VAR), was used. It is designed to assist referees in making decisions regarding four key situations on the field: whether or not to recognize a goal (e.g. whether the player was offside), to decide on a penalty kick, to punish a player with a red card, or to recognize the identity of the footballer to whom, for example, he intends to show a yellow or red card.

How does it work? Each meeting is recorded and watched on monitors by video assistants. They have access to replays and maintain communication with the head referee at all times. The latter – in a situation of doubt – can ask them to watch the replay and give him the information, or allow him to see it himself. The aforementioned report “New Technologies in Sports” quotes an article from the British Medical Journal: “In order assess whether offside occured, assistant referee must observe at least five moving objects: the last two players of the defending team (usually a goalkeeper and a defender, less often two defenders), at least two attackers (the one passing the ball and the one or ones in the offside) and the ball. This is beyond the capability of the human eye, which may explain why so many decisions about offsides are controversial.”

VAR has come to the rescue of referees and reduced the number of mistakes they make. Unsurprisingly, it quickly became widespread. In the Polish Ekstraklasa it was implemented back in the 2016/2017 season, and in 2018 it was used during the World Cup, which was held in Russia.

Nonetheless, it was not free of controversy. The use of this technology causes several minutes of interruptions during matches. VAR is also not perfectly capable of detecting whether a player was on the offside during fast-paced action (this is due to the fact that the camera captures a certain number of frames per second and sometimes fails to register the moment when the passer’s leg touches the ball).

That’s why the following World Cup (Qatar, 2022) used – in addition to VAR – semiautomatic technology for catching offsides, using artificial intelligence. Beneath the roofs of the stadium, 12 cameras were installed to track the ball and 29 points on the each player’s body to calculate their exact position on the field 50 times per second. Sensors were also installed in the ball, transmitting data of its movement 500 times per second. The image went straight to the VAR referees, who were then able to decide in seconds whether an offside occured or not.

Staying on the topic of soccer, the miCoach Smart Ball created by Adidas is a smart ball for training. It is equipped with sensors that collect information about its speed, rotation and direction. These are sent to an app that interprets the data about the force of the kick, spin and trajectory of the ball. The 94Fifty Smart Sensor Basketball works in a similar way.

A hawk’s eye can spot anything

Even though soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world, other sports aren’t lagging behind in their use of technology. Hawk-eye is a system composed of cameras and sensors that transmit recorded or pre-recorded images to a computer. A special program compares images from at least two cameras. It also has a database with a model of the area of a particular discipline and its rules, which allows it to automatically verify if the data recorded complies with the rules.

Hawk-eye was first used in 2001 during a cricket match. It caught the interest of representatives of other sports quite quickly. Today it is used, among other sports, in tennis, badminton, volleyball, soccer, field hockey or horse racing. Of course, in each discipline it comes in a slightly different form. During a tennis match, the movement of the ball is tracked by ten HD cameras with high recording speed, a volleyball match is already supported by fifteen cameras. In 2021, due to Covid implications, this system replaced line judges at the US Open and Australian Open tournaments.

So who won?

In sports competitions with a large number of participants, such as cross-country running or cycling, a so-called rolling start is used. It’s a procedure based on the principle that every few minutes another group of competitors join the race. No one complains, however, that they are already a few minutes late at the start, because they know that their time is being counted from the moment they cross the starting line.

This is because each competitor gets their transponder (usually a passive chip, ie. RFID tag, or an active chip where a very precise timing is important). On the route from the start to the finish line there are several checkpoints, where the chips of each competitor are scanned.

During many events, participants’ progress and their estimated time of reaching the finish line can be tracked in real time on the Internet. This allows fans of, for example, a marathon to see where “their” competitor is running at the moment. They can also check the results. Ironman competitions have their own app, which also sends notifications that a person has finished a lap in a swimming race or has just started a run in a marathon.

Smart T-shirt

Sportswear made of breathable, moisture-wicking and stretchy fabrics, which are lightweight and prevent skin chafing (by keeping the number of seams to a minimum) is now the standard, even for amateur athletes. Softshell technologies have already become so widespread that we use them not only in sports, but in everyday life as well.

Still, clothing manufacturers offer many other modern solutions. These include D3O, a fabric made of intelligent molecules that roam freely during movement, but when an impact occurs – they converge and absorb its energy. The elastic material instantly becomes hard, which is why it’s perfect for f.e. ski or motorcycle clothing. PrimaLoft, in turn, is an insulating fiber – the equivalent of natural fluff, but unlike the latter one, it doesn’t absorb moisture.

Smartwear – that’s the term for clothing equipped with various activity-monitoring sensors. There are, for example, socks that not only count steps, but also collect data about running technique or sports shorts that inform, f.e., about the length of a step or pelvic rotation.

Smart changes could not omit footwear as well, especially for runners. There are shoes already available on the market equipped with sensors that measure distance, pace, cadence, number of steps and analyze each training. They send the data to an app, so everyone can monitor their progress.

A coach on your wrist

Last but not least – a device that has become a must have for all those who practice some sort of a sports discipline: the smart watch. A personal trainer, equipped with GPS, sensors monitoring our parameters and dozens of pre-programmed workouts. The more advanced ones come with personalized training plans as well.

Smartwatches are also gaining popularity among people who don’t do sports. They measure calories and steps (replacing apps – a watch, unlike a phone, is always conveniently situated on our wrist). Depending on the model – they also monitor sleep, menstrual cycle, blood oxygen saturation, blood pressure or ECG. You can use them to pay contactlessly at the store, listen to music or take photos. They are also an extension of your phone, as they can display all notifications and inform you of incoming calls. In situations of danger, they send out an SOS to emergency services.

With or without a smartwatch, it’s important to remember that modern technology, indeed, helps, but success in sports is all about training, sweat and tears. And victory or breaking a record has the same taste over and over again.