How Sensor and Camera Technologies Help International Sports Competitions.

Technology

October 28, 2021

Advances in technology, especially in the field of sensors and high-speed cameras, have greatly helped the development of regulations for various sports competitions in the world. Sports such as tennis, badminton to football are now starting to take advantage of these technologies to capture in greater detail what is happening on the pitch and assist referees in applying more objective rules. The following are some of these technologies.

VAR (VIDEO ASSISTANT REFEREE)

VAR technology has been widely used since the 2018 World Cup. VAR itself is intended to assist referees in assessing incidents on the field such as fouls, to handball. VAR itself utilizes a special camera that can record all events in the field with very high detail and speed so that the video can be slowed down so that all details can be seen. Then after that the video will be sent to the control room with high speed internet which is then relayed to the referee for viewing on the field through a special monitor.

The presence of VAR itself had annoyed many football fans because they thought VAR made the excitement of football less. In addition, VAR is also considered a waste of game time because the referee needs at least a few minutes to check the VAR and this is considered disturbing the tempo on the field. However, the majority of football lovers support the presence of VAR which is considered to be able to help referees to make decisions on the field more objectively.

Hawk Eye

Hawk Eye technology is widely used in sports such as Tennis and Badminton which require scoring through the ball that enters the field area. Hawkeye will be used if a tennis ball or shuttlecock is considered difficult to assess whether it is entered or not with the naked eye or with a regular camera. Hawkeye itself consists of a high-speed camera and special sensors that are connected to the monitoring room.

In tennis or badminton, after Hawkeye's request is submitted, the camera will take detailed pictures of the moment when the tennis or badminton ball hits the ground. Then this image is processed by a special sensor which then converts the raw image into an animated 3D image complete with the path of the ball entering or not. The result of the Hawkeye will be validated by the referee to determine whether the ball goes in or not.

Interestingly Hawkeye cannot be used continuously because it can interfere with game time. In badminton, players who are competing may ask the referee to use Hawkeye 3 times. This makes players more strategic in the use of Hawkeye at key moments and at decisive points. Perhaps one of Hawkeye's dramatic uses was when our women's doubles team Greysia Pollii and Apriyani Rahayu won the Olympic gold medal yesterday. The Chinese players had asked for Hawkeye's camera to see whether the Indonesian team's final points were valid or not, and it turned out that the points were valid so that the women's doubles team could win gold.

GOAL LINE

Similar to Hawkeye technology, Goal Line technology is used to determine whether the ball enters the goal or not. There are two Goal Line systems, namely using high-speed cameras such as Hawk Eye or using special sensors installed in the goal and the ball itself which will give a signal if the ball enters the goal.

A ball that crosses the goal line will be scored as a goal or goal. The sensor of the Goal Line is so sensitive that it can tell whether the ball has crossed the line or not in a matter of millimeters.

The presence of this goal line technology is very important considering that there have been many incidents, especially in international competitions such as the World Cup and Champions League when the ball that should have been considered a goal was disallowed by the referee because it was considered not to have crossed the line or even vice versa which should not have been a goal. This happened because in the previous era referees only relied on observations from the field line referee which could sometimes be wrong.

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