Fraunhofer Institute develops soccer-tracking system
Used to be, if there was a close call in just about any sport, you could curse the ref or ump and storm off the field in a lather, knowing that you were right, they were wrong, and your career-ending loss was really just the result of a corrupt or stupid official making a bad call. Instant replays, digital timers and other technologies have taken some of the human error out of sports, and now the soccer-loving scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute hope to make that sport error-free. They've come up with a system that uses wireless transmitters in both the ball and players' shinpads to track the location of the ball and players on the field. If successful, they hope to bring the system to other sports. No doubt their next version will be implantable and will track steroid use, blood-alcohol levels and keep score in player-fan melees.
[Via Near Near Future]
