Science in Sports

Sports Technology of www.waikato.ac.nz the Future Shakunt Pandey

September 2018 | Science Reporter | 19 HE rapid advent of technology has which W.G. Grace, Donald Bradman, Bowling machines are in demand but changed the face of sports forever Sir Garfield Sobers, Vivian Richards, or obviously they are for the advantage of T and for better. Now it’s fairer our original Little Master Sunil Gavaskar, batsmen. How about a tech that helps both and most importantly easily available to and other cricketing jewels graced. Hawk the batsmen and the bowlers? The answer one and all. The Video Assistant Referee Eye, , , lies in Dartfish Video Technology and this (VAR) which was successfully used in Camera, Stump Microphone, Speed Gun, will become more popular in the coming the recently concluded mega World Cup Third Umpire and the DRS are in use and days. The players can watch themselves Football Championship is the most talked have made the game more interesting, bowl and bat as it happens! about sports technology at present. captivating as well as fairer. Through Dartfish Technology the Sports has been enriched by adopting The basic equipment of cricketers coach captures the video footage technology and it is now being applied is undergoing a sea change and with of the player’s stroke and delivery and to just about every aspect right from amazing new technologies coming up it works through it frame by frame as it the manufacture of sports equipments won’t be a long wait for players to use is viewed on the TV right next to the to electronic and video decision making lighter, stronger and durable cricket bats player in the centre. The coach is able to performance enhancing therapies. and lighter and breathable protective gears to draw on the screen highlighting the Athletes and players worldwide are like gloves, , helmet, thigh pad and areas that need the player’s attention. breaking old records and setting new protector. The annoying Velcro strapping Information can be saved on the computer records thanks to improved physical will soon be a thing of the past. for future references and players can even training, health care, and eating habits. The ICC is adopting bats that have take a copy of it to work upon. Dartfish This is unfathomable without sports swing sensing chips inside. These sensors technology can be used in other sports as technology – the tools, machines and jointly developed by tech giant Intel and well like football, tennis, rugby, , materials that make good athletes even sports start up company Specular will swimming, skiing, track and field, better. measure the bat’s speed and angle during gymnastics, combat sports, etc. And so, when present world of sports back lift, impact and follow through. Rain has always and still does spoil is full of such awe inspiring technologies, The figures will then be transmitted a good day’s play. Calling off matches what about the sports technologies of the for immediate analysis by coaches and altogether or a nail biting finish coming future? Let’s take a look at some of these TV broadcasters. Like the Hawk Eye to an abrupt end and results being decided exciting future technologies. Technology this will lead to detailed by the Duckworth-Lewis Method has visualisations during each game. Already left millions of cricket fans fuming and The World of Cricket devices attached to players’ bodies or exasperated. To save the good game of For the people of the Indian subcontinent, clothing are becoming a reality of elite cricket from inclement weather cricket cricket is not just another game, but international cricket, helping players to stadiums of the future may come up with a religion. We love, live and breathe understand what is required of them, retractable stadium roofs. Time and again cricket. Technology has completely preventing injuries, identifying illegal former English cricketer Kevin Pietersen transformed this gentlemen’s game bowling actions (chucking), if any. has rooted for this technology. He knows about this technology because it is used in his home country, at the Mecca of lawn By 2030, footage will be streamed live for broadcasting tennis – the Wimbledon’s Centre Court. by insect-like flying robots This can be used in cricket stadiums of the future too. The cricket stadium roofs of Cameras installed in the ‘eyes’ the future may be made of speedily give an incredible view of the moving folding roof made of PTFE game as the robots fly around - the players, also going behind (polytetrafluoroethylene) fabric which is the scenes before and after matches and capturing footage strong, flexible and translucent and allows of training natural light in but keeps dampness off the ground by controlled air conditioning. Poor light also cannot hinder play as lights installed on the roofs switch on their own as the roof is shut. Will flying insect sized In a do-or-die situation in a cricket robots with cameras match, the catch-or-miss scenario can fitted in their eyes make the future game sometimes turn cloudy and controversial of football incredible? wherein video shots or zoomed in picture Picture Source: Ian frames from different angles fail to reveal Pearson/Futurizon the real picture as to whether the fielder

20 | Science Reporter | September 2018 Hi-tech chess boards of the future Picture source: media. incubateind.com had managed to pull back the ball from “Future of Football” predicted how the coach to decide when a player should the boundary ropes cleanly in the nick of the game played with our feet (ere with be substituted. time or not. To solve this problem LED no hands of God!) will change with boundary ropes may be seen in stadiums. several technologies coming into use Robots and Humanoid Players Already LED stumps and bails have with time. He believes that the key to Ian Pearson believes that by the year become common in today’s cricketing bigger and better technological role 2030 football footage will be streamed world – it’s only a matter of time when in football lies in the development of live for broadcasting by insect-like flying LED boundary ropes will make a debut. smart phone technology. Time is not robots which will follow the players The job of the umpires is the far when advanced smart phones will around the field. Cameras installed in most thankless and their roles may be have ultra realistic 3D video simulation their ‘eyes’ will give an incredible view sometimes deemed to be biased. To and immersion capability technology of the game as the robots fly around the make umpiring fair and unbiased there in place that will make the apps let players, also going behind the scenes are umpteen technologies that aid in people immerse in the game even better. before and after matches and capturing correct decision making. Time is not far 3D immersion technology will make footage of training. when human umpires will give way to football even more socially inclusive Humanoids (human-like robots) robot umpires with artificial intelligence because the feeling of being there in a in near future will also play the game and embedded with all the latest tech stadium would be equally available to of football. Within fifty years or less and gadgets that will make umpiring people viewing remotely, as would the they will look and feel like people and foolproof. associated interaction with the play that become stronger and more agile. They could be enabled. won’t be based on cogs and wheels and The World of Football Football boots of players may have wires but on a strong skeleton overlaid The recently concluded World Cup embedded sensors to measure every with polymer gel muscles which will in Russia saw the emergence of new step and allow apps to recreate every make them agile and the football game technologies like Video Assistant move, and also measure the strength exciting. They will be of course very Referees and Goal-Line Technology and angle of impact with the ball, or well networked so that every aspect of being used. Football is all about audience another player’s leg. This data could be their play and condition could be used engagement and technology has always available to referees to help decide if a in supporter apps. been used to improve the quality of play player was guilty of a foul. Footballers Many homes will have humanoid and audience participation beyond the could carry on their clothes health or assistants who may join humans in a stadium. fitness monitoring sensors, which will game of football or enjoy their own Ian Pearson who is involved in display pulse, blood pressure, blood game. Dedicated fans may control their predicting future technologies and an sugar, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, behaviour and play against each other owner of Futurizon in his paper titled sweating and hydration which will help without actually joining in the game.

September 2018 | Science Reporter | 21 This could very well bridge the gap between physical football and computer game variations. Older or infirm people could remotely control humanoids and take part in the game as if they were playing themselves.

Chess and Tennis The game of chess which is said to have originated in our country is slowly transforming itself into a hi-tech game and in the future one may play remote control chess from anywhere in the world or may be play against an AI robot or witness a duel between AI robots. A futuristic hi-tech chess board Interactive Tennis connected to wireless networks will allow surface of the future. people to connect and play board games Picture Source: Technis with each other from anywhere in the globe. AI bots which not only play chess making decisions about shots being in or but have mastered the skill to beat one and help reflect heat and ultraviolet rays. all have been developed and the quest to out. The Pad records a range of events Japanese broadcaster NHK is develop better ones continues. during a match. It can detect the players’ planning to go super hi-tech for its position on the court and where the ball Taiwan’s Industrial Technology coverage of 2020 Olympics. The games bounces. It can be used as a smart target in Research Institute (ITRI) has developed will be offered in 8K which is 16 times training and it provides coaches with data its chess playing robot which they have sharper than high definition televisions christened ‘Turk’. Deep Mind, Google’s that allows them to evaluate the player’s and microphones that can zoom in on sibling, has also created a chess playing tennis level, identify any areas that need sound anywhere in the stadium. Japan robot which they have named ‘Alphazero’ improvement, and get a clear picture of will also use robots to help visitors with which took just four hours to learn the the player’s progress over time. language translation. The technologies rules of chess before beating the world The interactive court also allows being planned to be used by Japan to make champion chess program, Stockfish8, in players to set their own challenges. They the sporting experience wonderful will be a hundred game match up. can, for instance, define the exact point on watched keenly and may be implemented by other nations too. The game of tennis may in the the court to practice aiming their service near future witness an interactive tennis and see the results in real time during It is worth observing that sports surface. A Swiss start-up called Technis is practice. technology developed for a particular developing this technology of the future. sport is not restricted to it but becomes a The company has developed intelligent Technology for 2020 Olympics part of other sports too in due course of flooring which can be integrated into Tokyo is reeling under an unprecedented time. For instance, Hawk Eye Technology synthetic and resin courts and combines heat wave and this has sent the host is used in cricket, tennis, badminton, advanced sensor technology with artificial country of the 2020 Olympic Games in a football, volleyball and many other sports. intelligence .The interactive surface tizzy. The Olympic organisers are looking Similarly, Goal Line Technology is now consists of modular mats which can at ways to combat the heat when the 2020 used in many sports. be placed anywhere on the court to Games rolls into town in two years. The upcoming future technologies in sports are exciting. With rapid enhance players’ experience and generates Experts have warned of the risks of advancement in technology and Artificial information while they play. The fully heat strokes at the games. Keeping the Intelligence, the time is not very far when tactile surface can sense anything and welfare of a large number of spectators robots will be pitted against our race or everything that happens during a match. and sportspersons from worldwide who against their own kind in a game of the The software recognizes the events will converge at the games, the Tokyo future. happening on the surface and sends the Metropolitan Government has developed data to mobile and web applications mist spraying technologies, which are to allow users to monitor their activity nano (micro)-particle-sized, and plans Mr. Shakunt Pandey is a popular science in real time. The data is displayed on writer, an author and a senior freelance to spray more than hundred kilometres journalist. Address: Lake Utsav, P-331 a screen positioned on the edge of the of road, including the routes for the Parnasree Pally, Flat-3A, Kolkata-700060; court and can be used by umpires when marathon and walking events that will Email: [email protected]

22 | Science Reporter | September 2018