Since 2007, FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the group which organizes the World Cup has been thinking of adopting technology to assist referees determine whether a player had actually scored a goal.
And 7 years later, the technology will finally be implemented at this year’s World Cup in Brazil, starting this week.
During the last year, FIFA tested out goal line technology from the company that makes GoalControl during a probationary period. During the test run, the GoalControl system accurately detected 68 goals scored during the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil 2013.
The winner of a bidding process, GoalControl, has a system called 4D which used 14 cameras with 7 aimed at each goal. With absolute precision, the system measures “if the ball crossed the goal line completely” or not. The cameras’ sensors detect a ball’s movement to within at least 5 millimeters.
And while the cameras recognize the ball’s movement, they ignore the motions of players, referees, and other objects. Also, mirrored-image cameras with sensors placed on catwalks around the stadium are used to recognize the dimensions of the ball, the measurements and 3D position.
When the ball crosses the goal line, a wristwatch with integrated circuit technology that the referees vibrates. The referees tested the system and approve and in the future,it will include more information than just the word goal to indicate a goal.
This should be interesting.
