LIVE broadcasts of football matches over the Internet are now possible,
thanks to a technique that uses radar to keep track of the players.
But the matches will not look like conventional television. Each will be a
three-dimensional computer animation, with every player represented by a
computerised figure in team colours who will run about the pitch exactly as the
real player does. The player鈥檚 gestures, expression and posture will not be
represented. The European Football Championships, to be held in Belgium and
Holland in 2000, could be the first to use the Israeli-developed system.
鈥淩eal-time tracking of players and the ball using microwave and
video-processing technologies means we should be able to have live Internet
matches broadcast when games are not broadcast on TV,鈥� says Miky Tamir,
vice-president of Orad Hi Tec Systems, an Israeli electronics company.
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The system, called Sportrack, uses a transponder about half the size of a
credit card sewn into the shirt of every player and official. There will also be
one inside the ball. The transponder receives microwave radiation from a
transmitter a few dozen metres from the pitch and transmits it to two receivers,
allowing a computer to calculate the transponder鈥檚 position. Since each player鈥檚
tag is unique and shifts the frequency of the microwaves by a particular amount,
the computer knows where everyone is on the field at all times. The system
creates a 3D model of the players for transmission over the Internet.
Sportrack also lends itself to creating action replays from different camera
angles. Currently, its commentators can only rotate camera angles within a 3D
still frame. Alternatively, a short animation can be laboriously produced some
time after the event. But online spectators will eventually be able to choose
the referee鈥檚 view of a controversial decision, or the views that different
players had.
鈥淲e鈥檝e already done our first feasibility test and it works perfectly,鈥�
claims Tamir, who expects to market the system in mid-1999. The 3D mimicry of
the action requires less bandwidth than transmitting TV pictures, making it more
suitable for webcasting. But how rights to Net sports broadcasts will be
separated from TV rights is unknown. 鈥淭his technology sounds like it will herald
a field day for the Premier League鈥檚 lawyers,鈥� says one observer, who did not
want to be named.
But soccer鈥檚 ruling body may need some convincing over the use of the
transponder in the ball. 鈥淎nything that affects the balance of the ball, its
appearance or how it moves in the air could be a worry,鈥� says Steve Double, a
spokesman for the Football Association, the game鈥檚 governing body in Britain.
And Andreas Herren, of FIFA, the sport鈥檚 international governing body, says that
the laws of the game would have to be changed for players to wear tags. 鈥淜nowing
where a player is exactly at any time would prompt tons of protests. Too much
science can be detrimental to the game sometimes,鈥� says Herren.
The exposure of players and officials to microwave emissions for 90 minutes
will also be a concern. Orad believes the system is safe. Yair Granot, a
research engineer at Orad in Tel Aviv, says that the transmitter鈥檚 10-milliwatt
power output is tiny compared with the 700 milliwatts of cellphones. 鈥淎nd you
place the cellphone right next to your ear and not 100 metres or so from your
body, like Sportrack鈥檚 transmitter,鈥� he says.
The safety of football grounds is overseen by local authorities. But they
take advice on electromagnetic radiation from the National Radiological
Protection Board. Mike Clarke, a spokesman for the board, says that even though
Orad鈥檚 radar signal is low power, it is 鈥渂ound to cause some comment鈥�.