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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and

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Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Sitting across from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: Oh and that's a bad miss wice. I like that one. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So today we're going to talk about some interesting technology. Um,

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Speaker 1: and this was something that has been requested of us

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Speaker 1: from a couple of different people. We're gonna talk about sports, specifically,

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Speaker 1: specifically hawkeye, right, but but there are other sports we

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Speaker 1: we actually we struggled with what we were going to

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Speaker 1: call this podcast because down yep I had said hawkeye

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Speaker 1: not an avenger, but was told that that was not

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Speaker 1: s c O worthy. Well, I you know, when we

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Speaker 1: we started thinking about the technology used in sports officiating

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Speaker 1: and sports broadcasting, they're all kinds of technologies that they

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Speaker 1: used for for a variety of different things. And um,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan and I researched some of the same technologies and

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Speaker 1: some of different technologies, and in fact, I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: we'll get to everything we looked at. We may have

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Speaker 1: to come back to it in the future, write it

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Speaker 1: down and and and come back to some of it.

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Speaker 1: But specifically, we wanted to talk about the Hawkeye officiating

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Speaker 1: system because that's one of the topics that both of

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Speaker 1: us worked on. And if you haven't heard of this,

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Speaker 1: um it may depend on which sports you follow. Hawkeye

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Speaker 1: is used. Americans probably would know what best for tennis.

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Speaker 1: If you're a tennis fan, you know that for years

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Speaker 1: they've used systems to try to help them officiate whether

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Speaker 1: or not the ball hits on the line or next

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Speaker 1: to the line, Is it in? Is it out? Uh?

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Speaker 1: Is Wacknrow going to throw a complete fit that really

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Speaker 1: has almost nothing to do with whether or not the

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Speaker 1: ball was in or ound. No, but there's like a

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Speaker 1: chance that will happen. Yes, and it's always entertaining when

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Speaker 1: he does. It was wonderful anyway, But yeah, and to

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Speaker 1: varying degrees, Hawkeye is the newest, I would guess, newest system,

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Speaker 1: or at least the newest one I've heard of that's

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Speaker 1: used for this purpose. And it's highly highly accurate, and

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Speaker 1: I see I see in looking into it in greater depth,

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Speaker 1: why people are so interested in it. Yeah, and it's

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Speaker 1: not just used in tennis, of course, that's that's what

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Speaker 1: Chris was mentioning. That was the one that the American

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Speaker 1: folks would probably be most familiar with, but it's also

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Speaker 1: been used quite a bit in cricket, which as I

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Speaker 1: studied and as I learned more and more about the

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Speaker 1: hawkeye system, I realized that compared to cricket, hawkeye is

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Speaker 1: really easy to understand. Cricket is impenetrable. I seriously, you

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Speaker 1: it's an asseason. All the folks out there playing cricket,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty much everybody. How do you even understand what's happening?

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Speaker 1: Like do you wake up in the middle of the

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Speaker 1: game and say, are you just making the rules up

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Speaker 1: as you go along? Seriously, I don't understand. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: know you're gonna get hate mail for that. And we

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Speaker 1: need to have a podcast just on cricket so I

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Speaker 1: can listen to it, because I sure as heck couldn't

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Speaker 1: talk about all right, anyway, that's neither here nor there.

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Speaker 1: So well, it's the too share similarities in that you

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Speaker 1: have a smallish balls being thrown or hit, and the

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Speaker 1: thing is you have to tell whether or not it's

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Speaker 1: landing in a certain spot. Um And what hawkeye does

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Speaker 1: It can it can tell you, uh, for one thing,

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Speaker 1: where the ball is hitting, whether it's in or out

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Speaker 1: hits on online. But it also can tell you it

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Speaker 1: can give you an idea of the distribution of where

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Speaker 1: the ball is landing. And it's a lot easier to tell,

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Speaker 1: you know, for example, where a a sock car ball

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Speaker 1: or a football or football depending on how you look

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Speaker 1: at it, or a basketball, those those balls are are large,

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Speaker 1: considerably larger, and they're easier to spot. But yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: trying to follow something like a hockey puck or a

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Speaker 1: cricket ball or a tennis ball is or baseball you

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Speaker 1: know there. That's why a lot of these technologies are

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Speaker 1: being developed to help augment human ability to see where

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Speaker 1: it's going and maybe give us some insight on how

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Speaker 1: to play the game a little better. Yeah, So in hawkeye,

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Speaker 1: for I mean, it's it's not unusual to think of

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Speaker 1: cameras on a sporting event and cameras being used to

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Speaker 1: try and determine whether or not a ball has passed

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Speaker 1: out of play, and that we've seen that in lots

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Speaker 1: of different sports, and you know, you'll see it in

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Speaker 1: football even then, where you'll you know, they'll have to

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Speaker 1: do a slow motion replay and the referees will be

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Speaker 1: looking at to make sure that the call they made

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Speaker 1: was an accurate call um if their call has been challenged.

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Speaker 1: The same thing in other sports. There are other sports

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Speaker 1: where you are allowed to challenge the ruling of a

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Speaker 1: referee or umpire and uh, and then you usually have

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Speaker 1: either a moment where the referees will talk amongst themselves

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Speaker 1: or they will refer to whatever the tape is right right.

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Speaker 1: Of course, there is much debate about whether or not

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Speaker 1: this is okay or not, and whether, you know, should

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Speaker 1: we bring technology into it? Should it just be like

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Speaker 1: human error is part of the game, and therefore it's

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Speaker 1: part of the game, both on the part of the

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Speaker 1: players and the officiates. And other people are saying, can

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Speaker 1: we please just take the officiate error out so that

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Speaker 1: we just have to worry about the player or well,

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Speaker 1: considering how good the technology has gotten, it's understandable that

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Speaker 1: this debate has continued because hawkeye itself is at least

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Speaker 1: according to my research, accurate within three point six millimeters,

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Speaker 1: possibly a little bit better. At least according to the

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Speaker 1: person who invented it, Dr Paul Hawkins. Now hawk, Okay,

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Speaker 1: you feel like I've heard that Plkins. At any rate.

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Speaker 1: The the the interesting thing to me about hawkeye is

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Speaker 1: not that it's it's not that it's it's a you know,

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Speaker 1: a complex camera system. That part's interesting. But what's really

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Speaker 1: interesting to me is that using these cameras and triangulating

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Speaker 1: the images captured by these different cameras um and measuring

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Speaker 1: the speed of the ball and the path of the ball,

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Speaker 1: Hawkeye is able to project where that ball would have

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Speaker 1: gone had it not encountered something. All Right, So this

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Speaker 1: is not necessarily important in every sport, but in some

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Speaker 1: sports it means a great deal. This is where we

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Speaker 1: get back to cricket, where I was having a really

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Speaker 1: hard time figure out why do you even need this

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Speaker 1: for cricket? Um Because for those of you who are

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Speaker 1: cricket fans who or perhaps you're not familiar with say

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Speaker 1: American baseball, we don't really look at replays for baseball

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Speaker 1: that that doesn't really have been well often. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: that's another one of those things that keeps coming up,

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Speaker 1: should there be should there be a replay system in baseball?

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Speaker 1: So That's why I was wondering, like, why do you

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Speaker 1: need it for? Why do you need it for a cricket? Well, cricket,

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Speaker 1: you know, they have their elements in cricket that are

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Speaker 1: similar to baseball. But that just fools you. It reels

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Speaker 1: you in and then think makes you think you understand

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Speaker 1: how what's happening, but you really don't. Well, the two

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Speaker 1: sports are cousins, they do share some similarity. So the

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Speaker 1: batsman in cricket stand in front of the stumps right

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Speaker 1: the wicket based based on what I know of cricket. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so you have the bowler who lobs the ball, uh,

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Speaker 1: and the bowler's aim is to knock over the wicket,

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Speaker 1: to knock over the stumps, and the batsman is defending

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Speaker 1: the stomps, trying to hit the ball out of the

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Speaker 1: way and earn runs. Well, sometimes the ball will hit

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Speaker 1: the batsman and there there is a a a term

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Speaker 1: called leg for wicket, which is essentially meaning that the

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Speaker 1: batsman's body has has encountered the ball and that the

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Speaker 1: ball would have continued had the batsman not gotten in

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Speaker 1: the way and then knocked the wicket over. Well, clearly

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Speaker 1: that would be an unsportsmanlike way to prevent the bowler

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Speaker 1: from hitting the wicket. So hawkeye has been used in

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Speaker 1: cricket to project where the path of the ball would

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Speaker 1: have been had the batter not batsman, not been in

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Speaker 1: the way. So the idea is that, well, sometimes the

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Speaker 1: ball would have hit the wicket, sometimes it would have

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Speaker 1: bounced over the wicket or bounced to the left or

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Speaker 1: to the right of the wicket. And yet if you're officiating,

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Speaker 1: if you make this call, uh, you know, you're basing

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Speaker 1: it on your own perception of what's happening right, your

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Speaker 1: own the angle that you're looking at, and um uh

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Speaker 1: you know how closely you're paying attention. Hawkeye is supposed

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Speaker 1: to try and take some of that guess workout by

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Speaker 1: stating by by measuring the path of the ball, the

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Speaker 1: speed of the ball, and and essentially guessing or calculating

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Speaker 1: where the future path would have been. So that's a

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Speaker 1: very useful feature there because it takes theoretically, if it works,

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Speaker 1: it takes the human element, the guessing, the estimation out

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Speaker 1: of it. Now, what I find interesting about this is

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Speaker 1: that humans we tend to really like this kind of prediction, right,

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Speaker 1: predicting where something's going to go based upon the angle

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Speaker 1: and the speed. Because if we didn't love that, angry

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Speaker 1: Birds never would have become a huge hit. But this

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Speaker 1: is serious, I'm serious. Think about it. Think of all

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Speaker 1: the games that we play that depend upon accurately assessing

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Speaker 1: how the path of an object is moving through the air.

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Speaker 1: I mean baseball and football, and both depend on it

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Speaker 1: because you have to be at the right place at

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Speaker 1: the right time to intercept it. Right. Let's let I

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Speaker 1: mean get right down to it. Sports. A lot of

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Speaker 1: geeks say that they don't like sports, and that may

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Speaker 1: necessarily be true. Two, but there is a geeky element

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Speaker 1: to sports otherwise, and I don't know of a sport

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Speaker 1: for which this is not true. We wouldn't be keeping

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Speaker 1: these elaborate statistics about the you know, well, in the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter, the team that is a head is likely

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Speaker 1: to win by seventy six percent of the time. And

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Speaker 1: you know, he gets on base, he's likely to score

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Speaker 1: you know, four d per cent. You know as well,

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Speaker 1: you get into them and totally messed that up. But

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Speaker 1: I'm basically they keep a lot of the sports statisticians

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Speaker 1: keep all kinds of amazingly uh minute statistics about every

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Speaker 1: living every little thing you know, on days when it's

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Speaker 1: seventy six degrees and you know this kind of right here,

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Speaker 1: his name is Paul Revere. That's just going to open

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Speaker 1: another door to another world we don't want to go

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Speaker 1: to right now. But yeah, I mean, this is another

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Speaker 1: one of those examples of adding technology that's going to

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Speaker 1: help us track that much more information about the sport

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Speaker 1: and gives us something else to argue about, which is

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Speaker 1: another sporting tradition, right, but that's sometimes more entertaining than

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Speaker 1: whatever is actually going on, depends on the sport. But

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Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean, we're interested in what would have

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Speaker 1: happened and how likely is this particular outcome versus that

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Speaker 1: particular outcome based on history and the ambient temperature and

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Speaker 1: all kinds of other things. And hawkeye does take a

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Speaker 1: lot of that into account. That's the one of the

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Speaker 1: interesting things about hawkeye is, um, there's a battery of cameras.

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Speaker 1: They go around the playing surface, whatever sport you're playing.

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Speaker 1: And there are people who want hawkeye used for baseball,

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Speaker 1: American baseball, cricket. It's the pitch, right or but yeah,

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Speaker 1: but but the cameras are only part of the story,

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Speaker 1: as Jonathan pointed out earlier, and yes there is there

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Speaker 1: are computers on the back end, but what what really

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Speaker 1: fascinated me is and the number cameras depends on whatever

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Speaker 1: sport is in question. There might be more or fewer

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Speaker 1: depending on the area. Ten yea cameras. It is a

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Speaker 1: lot of cameras, especially considering the size of a tennis court.

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Speaker 1: But the fascinating thing to me is the prep work

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Speaker 1: that takes to go in. And the reason that Hawkeye

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Speaker 1: isn't used more wide in a more widespread way is

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Speaker 1: it's expensive. You might say, why, it's just some cameras. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and they're sophisticated cameras, sure, but you also require people

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Speaker 1: to run the system. And part of that is it

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Speaker 1: takes prep work. The surface of the playing surface, whatever

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Speaker 1: it is, is mapped because it's I can't think of

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Speaker 1: a playing surface and it seems flat to us when

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Speaker 1: we go out to stand on the on the tennis

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Speaker 1: court or or the cricket pitch, but it's not. And

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Speaker 1: the computer maps. The Hawkeye system needs to map the

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Speaker 1: surface of the ground and where the lines are and

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Speaker 1: where all the things are on the feet yield so

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Speaker 1: that it knows essentially where everything is. It takes into

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Speaker 1: account the temperature and other factors because of course, the

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Speaker 1: the tennis court could heat up depending on the color

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Speaker 1: of the tennis court, that the material the court is

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Speaker 1: made of, grass for example, or clay. Um clay is

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Speaker 1: a little bit different because you know the clay, you

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Speaker 1: can actually see if you've ever watched a clay court match, uh,

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Speaker 1: you'll see that it leaves a little dust mark when

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Speaker 1: the when the ball hits. That's easier for them to tell.

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Speaker 1: But on other surfaces like grass, it's not as easy

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Speaker 1: to tell, but it will heat up and that can

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Speaker 1: actually change whether or not the the court is expanding

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Speaker 1: or contracting depending on the temperature. And Hawkeye has to

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Speaker 1: take all of that information into account um so that

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Speaker 1: when the cameras do record the trajectory of the ball,

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Speaker 1: and it also needs to know how the ball is

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Speaker 1: going to act. Right if you're you're looking at a

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Speaker 1: tennis ball, how does a tennis ball behave when it

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Speaker 1: hits the earth versus cricket ball. Sure, so it takes

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Speaker 1: all of this stuff into account, which is why the

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Speaker 1: system is so sophisticated and so remarkably accurate. At tracking

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Speaker 1: where the ball is going to land based on you know,

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Speaker 1: the way the ball is hit or is thrown, and

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Speaker 1: the surface it hits in the in the environment that

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Speaker 1: it hits. I think that is absolutely amazing how how

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Speaker 1: how it works like that, And it does require human

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Speaker 1: intervention too, because people have to operate the equipment beforehand

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Speaker 1: and during the game or the match to h to

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Speaker 1: make it work. And there's definitely some controversy here as well,

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Speaker 1: because you're talking about I mean, yes, Christmas pointing out

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Speaker 1: it is very precise as a margin of error around

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Speaker 1: three point six millimeters, that's pretty tiny. But should you

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Speaker 1: have a situation where Hawkeye is essentially telling you that

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Speaker 1: let's let's say that it's a tennis match. Okay, let's

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Speaker 1: say it's a Test match and the the the the

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Speaker 1: referee has said that it is uh that the ball

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Speaker 1: was hit out, and then the other the player who

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Speaker 1: hit the ball, challenges that call and so they review

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Speaker 1: it and Hawkeye says it was in, but it was

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Speaker 1: in by one millimeter. Well that's within that range of

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Speaker 1: error at every point six. So then you have to

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Speaker 1: decide does that does the is the referees call upheld

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Speaker 1: or overturned. If it's overturned, how do you justify that

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Speaker 1: when the the the the distance that it was you

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Speaker 1: know that that it fell within is less than the

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Speaker 1: margin of error for the system. See, there's an all

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Speaker 1: new uh, all the dimension of arguing about sports to

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Speaker 1: be like, no, that's within the margin of error. You

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Speaker 1: cannot you cannot overturn a call based upon that. I

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Speaker 1: mean that that that could become that could be the

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Speaker 1: outcome of that argument. Or they could say, all right,

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Speaker 1: well we're gonna trust the machine over the person even

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Speaker 1: though the machine gave us a reading that could theoretically

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Speaker 1: be wrong. Um. Yeah, that's the sticky thing. And of course,

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Speaker 1: when you're talking about one millimeter, you get into a

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Speaker 1: point where without the system, you know, you just have

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Speaker 1: to go with whatever the the referee or or officiate says.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you don't have you don't have the benefit

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Speaker 1: of checking back on with another call, and sometimes you

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Speaker 1: just you know, you got to accept the fact that

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Speaker 1: there is this element of error that's going to happen

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Speaker 1: because there's no perfect system to judge it. I think

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Speaker 1: if there were a perfect system, would it change the game?

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Speaker 1: It can? Um from what I've seen Uh, A lot

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Speaker 1: of the tennis players seem to like Hawkeye. They seem

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Speaker 1: to feel that it's pretty accurate. And if you're willing,

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Speaker 1: if you're willing to agree that the system is accurate

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Speaker 1: and to trust it, then that's one thing. But I

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Speaker 1: think you're right, Jonathan that if if a call comes

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Speaker 1: within that margin of error, even when you said, yes,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I trust this computerized system over the

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Speaker 1: official when it's a really tight call like that, I

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Speaker 1: believe it to be accurate. If they says one millimeter

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Speaker 1: and you go, well, yeah, but it's precise to within three,

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Speaker 1: it really could have been out. I mean, I think

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Speaker 1: that causes even the people who are really behind the

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Speaker 1: technology too, you know, because it's an emotional issue, especially

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Speaker 1: when you've been playing hard and it's it's you know,

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Speaker 1: it's an important match like you know, the Wimbledon final

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Speaker 1: for example, or the French Open, one of the Grand

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Speaker 1: Slam championships. It's you know, I think even the people

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Speaker 1: that are behind it are going to be a little

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Speaker 1: reticent to just trust the machine. But that's that you

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Speaker 1: have to trust the humans. If you don't trust the machines. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that that does come down. Yeah, exactly. You're like, well,

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Speaker 1: does that mean that something we know of that's accurate

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Speaker 1: up to three point six millimeters is somehow worse than

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Speaker 1: a humans perception? Is the humans perception actually more accurate

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Speaker 1: in this case? I mean it's a delicate subject. And

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Speaker 1: like like we said before, with the the clay courts,

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Speaker 1: that's where you're you start thinking, hey, maybe we just

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Speaker 1: need to start playing on clay a lot, because then

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Speaker 1: at least we can look at where the mark is

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Speaker 1: and say, all right, now, clearly this is where the

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Speaker 1: ball hit and you know the ball, Yeah, the ball

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Speaker 1: bounced out, but the ball initially hit within the lines.

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Speaker 1: Of course, then you're gonna have all the players who

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Speaker 1: specialize on all the other courts say no, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: no grass courts where it's at. Yeah, And then you

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Speaker 1: have the well, how how accurate is the little dust mark? Right?

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Speaker 1: Is that within three millimeters Someone's been standing over there

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Speaker 1: stomping a lot. So I'm not going to totally entrust

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Speaker 1: that either. Yeah, right here, sports is one that's one

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Speaker 1: of the that's one of those issues where uh, seemingly

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Speaker 1: tiny events can erupt in huge controversy. Yeah, so at

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Speaker 1: any rate, I do think this is a pretty cool

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Speaker 1: um device. And when Christmas talking about the back end

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Speaker 1: with the computers, they're all obviously running algorithms that allow

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Speaker 1: the the Hawkeye system to project where the ball either

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Speaker 1: was going to go or it can predict where the

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Speaker 1: ball actually landed. UM. The usually if you're talking about triangulation,

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Speaker 1: you're talking about at least feeds from at least three

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Speaker 1: cameras being the triangle right, and then based upon those

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Speaker 1: three those three streams of data, that's what the Hawkeye

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Speaker 1: system uses to predict where exactly it landed or where

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Speaker 1: it was going to go. Uh. It's a pretty interesting

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Speaker 1: system and I would be very interested to see it

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Speaker 1: applied to other sports as well. UM. I think, for

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Speaker 1: one thing, even if you're not using it as a

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Speaker 1: way to to back up calls or overturned calls, it

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Speaker 1: could in theory be a really useful system just for

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Speaker 1: players and teams and to to really kind of see,

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Speaker 1: you know, well, I meant to throw this kind of ball,

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Speaker 1: you know, the ball this way, but it actually came

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Speaker 1: out that way, or you know, uh, how accurate am

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Speaker 1: I when I'm trying to hit the wicket in cricket? Um,

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Speaker 1: that sort of thing. It could be really useful, although

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Speaker 1: again it's very expensive system, so really you only see

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Speaker 1: these things trotted it out for actual games as opposed

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Speaker 1: to you know, practices and things like that. Yeah, it's uh,

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Speaker 1: it's interesting to note to based on on what you

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Speaker 1: just said and the numbers I saw. UM. And I

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Speaker 1: should say that I did UM most of my or

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Speaker 1: a lot of my research from an article uh in

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Speaker 1: the New York Times that appeared in two thousand and

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Speaker 1: eight by Aaron Pilloffer. UM. He said, the system itself

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Speaker 1: actually costs around a hundred thousand dollars or so. UM.

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Speaker 1: That probably goes up a little bit or has gone

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Speaker 1: up a little bit in the last couple of years.

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Speaker 1: And I think it probably depends on the arena and

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Speaker 1: the and the type of system, the number of cameras

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Speaker 1: you have to have. UM. It also requires again you

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Speaker 1: have to pay people to run the equipment, so it

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Speaker 1: is not inexpensive, and it's not the kind of thing

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Speaker 1: you know, you'd have to set aside a good chunk

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Speaker 1: of change to put that on your practice fields. UM.

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Speaker 1: But you know, if you want to be really, really good,

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Speaker 1: maybe it's worth it. Yeah, I saw that. I saw

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Speaker 1: it was also used in UM the snooker Championships. Really yeah, wow,

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Speaker 1: I wen't have how many cameras you would need because

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Speaker 1: that's a really small playing surface relative to say a

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Speaker 1: cricket pitch. Yes, but you know what that that would

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Speaker 1: be fascinating though, because you could you could measure. I

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Speaker 1: would assume that a surface that small would be easier

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Speaker 1: to map with a computer UM, and the temperature would

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Speaker 1: be more controlled because it's something that you do indoors mostly.

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Speaker 1: I don't think they don't think they play arena. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but but yeah, that would be kind of interesting. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: well the idea is that it'll it'll kind of show

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Speaker 1: why shots went awry. Yeah, right, like someone when you

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Speaker 1: see a championship snooker player. I'm not gonna make any

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Speaker 1: jokes about them, but when you see them line up

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Speaker 1: a shot, you think, you know, well, why did that

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Speaker 1: shot not work out the way it was planned? And

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Speaker 1: that's the ideas that with this system you could actually

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Speaker 1: review that particular shot and see what exactly went wrong.

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Speaker 1: Was there some sort of imperfection in the table surface

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Speaker 1: or was it merely the technique the player used that

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Speaker 1: you know, it made a wrong judgment and that's why

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Speaker 1: it didn't work out. That's kind of interesting. Yeah, it's funny.

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Speaker 1: We're we're past the twenty minute mark of our podcast,

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Speaker 1: and and I'm thinking I've already thought of a couple

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Speaker 1: of things that I didn't do any research on sports

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Speaker 1: related technology that we can talk about later. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think we can definitely do a couple of sports podcasts.

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Speaker 1: And it's I do think that it's an illustration of uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's not sports aren't just for the athletes.

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Speaker 1: There's something for the geeks to get into as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I have two very simple camera systems I wanted to

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Speaker 1: talk about are not These are not Hawkeye systems. This

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Speaker 1: is unrelated to that, but I wanted to talk about

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Speaker 1: it because it ties into a podcast we did um

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Speaker 1: earlier several months ago. And it also I just think

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Speaker 1: is it's kind of those cool innovations in technology that

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Speaker 1: aren't as you know, we talked about a lot of

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Speaker 1: stuff that's really high tech, you know, complex computer systems

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Speaker 1: and high speed like these cameras, and that the Hawkeye

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Speaker 1: system uses their high definition, high speed cameras so they

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Speaker 1: can slow this action down to a crawl. But not

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Speaker 1: all systems need to be quite that complex. And a

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Speaker 1: good example of this is I don't have to thank

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Speaker 1: Tyler Klang for this, our producer, because he he actually

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Speaker 1: sent me the information. UM. Some systems designed by Garrett

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Speaker 1: Brown are actually deceptively simple and yet they have really

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Speaker 1: helped with capturing footage, specifically for events like the Olympics.

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Speaker 1: And Garrett Brown, if that name sounds familiar to you,

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Speaker 1: he's the guy who invented the steady cam. So we've

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Speaker 1: talked about the steady cam in a previous episode, and

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Speaker 1: Garrett Brown has continued to innovate camera systems. UM. He's

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Speaker 1: retired from shooting films himself, but he still works on

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Speaker 1: designing systems to capture footage in unusual situations and for

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Speaker 1: some of those he developed systems for to capture footage

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Speaker 1: for the Olympics. One of them is called the mob cam. Now,

428
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:52,440
Speaker 1: the mob cam is designed for swimming events, so if

429
00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 1: you're watching the races, you know, a swimming race. UM,

430
00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:59,159
Speaker 1: this is the camera that's on the bottom of the

431
00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:03,160
Speaker 1: pool that can take footage shot upward, so you get

432
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:06,520
Speaker 1: to see the swimmers as they swim through the pool.

433
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:11,919
Speaker 1: It's actually mounted on a track a little thin track

434
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:17,920
Speaker 1: and it's operated by pulleys manually. So Garrett Brown would

435
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 1: demonstrate this by you don't have this pulley system where

436
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:24,720
Speaker 1: he would have a crank that would be attached to

437
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:27,600
Speaker 1: a spool and then what he could do is turn

438
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:32,120
Speaker 1: that and it would pull the line which would then

439
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:36,440
Speaker 1: and pull the the camera on the track under the water,

440
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:38,960
Speaker 1: so you could follow along with the swimmers, and he

441
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 1: would watch on a monitor so he could keep the

442
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:42,960
Speaker 1: right speed, and then when it would get to the

443
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 1: when the swimmer would get to the end, if they

444
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,400
Speaker 1: it was like a race that had multiple lengths, then

445
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: he would just reverse start turning the crank the other

446
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 1: way and the camera would move the other way down

447
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: the pool. Um it's all. The reason why I decided

448
00:25:57,880 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 1: to go manual was because he was afraid that using

449
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 1: some sort of motorized or robotic system would um would

450
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 1: raise ire among judges and athletes because it would it

451
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 1: could theoretically change the conditions of the pool, and you

452
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:15,840
Speaker 1: don't want to do that when you're talking about world

453
00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:21,159
Speaker 1: class Olympic athletes where the tiniest detail can affect his

454
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:25,360
Speaker 1: or her performance, you don't want to create cause for concern.

455
00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 1: So Yeah, it's a neat little camera and you just

456
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 1: and it just scoots along the bottom. And that one's

457
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,919
Speaker 1: a couple of decades old actually, but a more recent

458
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:36,920
Speaker 1: one that was introduced in the two thousand Olympics his

459
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:42,200
Speaker 1: the dive cam. Now the dive cam again deceptively simple.

460
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 1: Imagine you've got an Olympic sized swimming pool. You've got

461
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 1: a tube that is uh extends all the way up

462
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 1: to the height of the um diving board and down

463
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:58,520
Speaker 1: into the water. The tube is weighted, it's it's got

464
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: air on the inside. It's capped at the top, so

465
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:06,119
Speaker 1: it's weighted so that it doesn't float away. But the

466
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,920
Speaker 1: tube is set up so that the cameras at the

467
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 1: very top of the tube when the diver is about

468
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 1: to begin his or her dive, and there's a release

469
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 1: another Pulley system, but there's a release where you where

470
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:19,960
Speaker 1: the operator releases the camera just as the diver starts

471
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:24,480
Speaker 1: to dive. And because we all obey the law of gravity,

472
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 1: we all fall at the same speed. So the camera

473
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:31,160
Speaker 1: falls at the same speed as the diver and goes

474
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 1: all the way down and even goes down into below

475
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 1: the water line, right, which you can do because the

476
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 1: tube exactly the tube extends beneath the water line, so

477
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 1: the camera continues to go down and capture footage of

478
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:44,359
Speaker 1: the diver as he or she enters the water. And

479
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: then there's some bungee cords attached to the camera that

480
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:49,919
Speaker 1: will slow it's descent so it doesn't just crash at

481
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: the bottom. And then you use a pulley system to

482
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,679
Speaker 1: raise the camera back up and you're ready to go

483
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:57,919
Speaker 1: for the next dive. So it's really kind of a

484
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:00,280
Speaker 1: neat way to follow a diver all the way down

485
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:04,760
Speaker 1: the entire uh length of his or her dive. Yes,

486
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:08,200
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry, no, no, go ahead. You were about

487
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:10,840
Speaker 1: to say something, it's gonna say. UM, I could talk

488
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 1: about one other technology that I investigated, UM and UH

489
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: That basically is another camera related technology, and it's very

490
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 1: similar to Hawkeye in some ways, UM, most notably in

491
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 1: that it requires UM it requires mapping the field of play,

492
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:34,359
Speaker 1: and that's UH something we actually have a great article

493
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:37,960
Speaker 1: on on how stuff works dot com. UM It's something

494
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 1: originally developed apparently by a company called sport Vision, a

495
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: New York City company that debuted its first and ten

496
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 1: system on a game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore

497
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: Ravens on septem So we're talking about American football here,

498
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 1: and that's if you've ever wondered watched a football game

499
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 1: and wondered how they it the first down line to appear,

500
00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: that yellow line to appear on the field, because you

501
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: know that's not painted on there. UM. In American football, uh,

502
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: you play with a the team has given four downs

503
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 1: to make a first down. Basically, they have to go

504
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: ten yards UM to get a first down, and they

505
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: have four chances to do that in order to advance

506
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:25,719
Speaker 1: down the field and hopefully score. That's the objective anyway,

507
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: while the other team tries to prevent that from happening. UM.

508
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: So there is a line of scrimmage, which is the line,

509
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: the imaginary line on on which the ball starts when

510
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:38,720
Speaker 1: they start to play. And then they have a line

511
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 1: that is originally at the first down uh ten yards

512
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 1: away and usually this is marked by a giant piece

513
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:51,719
Speaker 1: of orange appears to be plastic. I've never actually touched one, UM,

514
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 1: but it's on the side of the field, and really

515
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: from a televised angle, it's very hard to see because

516
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 1: they like to zoom in on the players and and

517
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: see what they're doing. So they don't usually zoom out

518
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: to the point where you can actually see that. So somebody,

519
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: apparently Sport Vision, decided to create a system by which

520
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:13,720
Speaker 1: you could actually show this to the viewer. Now. Um,

521
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 1: Like uh, tennis courts and and cricket pitches, the football

522
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 1: field is not flat, not completely flat. Of course, people

523
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: tear it up, especially outdoor arenas where it's been rainy. Uh.

524
00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 1: You know, the cleats tear up the field, It gets

525
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: mashed up. Plus um, the field is raised a little

526
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 1: bit in the center to help it drain. UM. So

527
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 1: it has to take the system has to take that

528
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 1: into account. And I should point out to that there

529
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,959
Speaker 1: are other companies that offer this technology. UM. But in

530
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: order to make this happen, there is a truck full

531
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 1: of equipment off the field as well, and it requires

532
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:51,400
Speaker 1: some chroma key the green screen effect that we've talked

533
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: about and UM and other podcasts as well. They have

534
00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:58,920
Speaker 1: to key out the colors of the players uniforms. UM.

535
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 1: But they showed the imaginary line on the field and

536
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,360
Speaker 1: UM by by using the chroma key technology, they can

537
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:08,920
Speaker 1: avoid showing the line on top of the players are

538
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 1: on top of the ball um and uh, they can

539
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,720
Speaker 1: they can show this imaginary line to the viewers. Now,

540
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 1: of course it's not it's there just to illustrate, So

541
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 1: it's not supposed to have the same kind of accuracy

542
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 1: that the Hawkeye system does. It's just to give a

543
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 1: little frame of reference to the viewer. Yeah, so you

544
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 1: have an idea, and that's why you know when uh.

545
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 1: And of course, like most sports, UH, it can be

546
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,160
Speaker 1: a game of very very small I mean we're talking

547
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 1: to the Hawkeye system millimeters, very small increments of of measurement.

548
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: So when a player appears to get to have earned

549
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: a first down through a running player passing play um,

550
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 1: and it appears that way to us watching at home,

551
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 1: it may not actually be the case because that yellow

552
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:58,040
Speaker 1: line is not accurate. It's a a very good approximation

553
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:00,280
Speaker 1: of where the line is supposed to be. So that's

554
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:02,680
Speaker 1: why you will still see the officials use the chains

555
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:06,800
Speaker 1: to measure um. Although you know that's always kind of

556
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:09,160
Speaker 1: made me laugh too, because they carry the chain out

557
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 1: in the middle of the field and I'm going, you

558
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 1: guys just ran out here with that thing, you know,

559
00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:17,240
Speaker 1: you're going that looks about right, um, But which always

560
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 1: amuses me. But um, but that's how they do that.

561
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 1: And I had always wondered that too, and I thought,

562
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:25,080
Speaker 1: you know, since it does involve cameras, it does involve um,

563
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:29,840
Speaker 1: a special camera for that purpose. Um. According to our

564
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 1: our article, it does require quite a bit of computer

565
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:34,320
Speaker 1: technology as well, because you have to take into account

566
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: the orientation of the camera. UM. You know, they do.

567
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 1: The producer of the broadcast is also choosing which camera

568
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 1: to focus on, So it has to the line has

569
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 1: to appear and roughly the same spot no matter where

570
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:47,960
Speaker 1: you're you're showing it from. So it has taken to

571
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:54,200
Speaker 1: account the perspective of the vision angle. UM. But you know,

572
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:56,000
Speaker 1: and it also has to to be able to show

573
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:58,000
Speaker 1: the line on the field and not on the top

574
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: of the players and referees in the ball. UM. But

575
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 1: that's a pretty neat system. And I assume that that's

576
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:07,320
Speaker 1: pretty close to the system they used to broadcast graphics

577
00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 1: when they show ads or other information about what's going

578
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 1: on in the field. They you know, they'll show it

579
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 1: in a place where the players aren't. UM tell you

580
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 1: what down it is or how many yards they have

581
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 1: to go. UM. But that's that's pretty neat and it

582
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,680
Speaker 1: does require again, like like the other technologies we've talked

583
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 1: about today, a special uh special cameras um and it

584
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: does you know, the camera itself has to be communicate

585
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:34,680
Speaker 1: where it is in regard to the play and the

586
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage, in the line of where the first

587
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 1: down is supposed to be earned in order to help

588
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:45,200
Speaker 1: the camera or help the computers know roughly where to

589
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 1: put the line. So that's uh, it's fascinating stuff. It's

590
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:50,480
Speaker 1: something I always wondered about and never really took the

591
00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 1: time to look into until it was time to do

592
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 1: the research. So I'm glad. I'm glad we did. But

593
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 1: there are other things that I would like to talk

594
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 1: about in a future podcast perhaps maybe uh maybe down

595
00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: the and we've tackled some other topics first. Yeah, sure,

596
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,760
Speaker 1: I've got I've got a great patent for a a

597
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 1: pitch speed and strike zone invention that I think would

598
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:11,040
Speaker 1: never ever ever see the light of day, but I'd

599
00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,400
Speaker 1: love to talk about it. Yeah, that's that's definitely one

600
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:16,840
Speaker 1: of those. And the baseball tracking technology where the baseball

601
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:19,759
Speaker 1: crosses the plate. Uh, if you're not a baseball fan,

602
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:23,239
Speaker 1: a lot of times they'll show uh. During the game,

603
00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 1: they'll show an angle camera angle where you see from

604
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:28,680
Speaker 1: behind the picture where the where the pitch is going

605
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:33,799
Speaker 1: to the batter, and as they analyze it, the commentators

606
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,399
Speaker 1: will put on a tracker where we'll show you where

607
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,320
Speaker 1: where it was in the strike zone. Right, I'm curious

608
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:41,480
Speaker 1: to see. I haven't gone enough research on that yet

609
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,200
Speaker 1: to talk about it confidently, but I want to talk

610
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,680
Speaker 1: about that. And possibly even that glow puck they used

611
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:51,319
Speaker 1: to use in hockey globe. Well, we'll just have to

612
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:53,759
Speaker 1: save that for a later discussion. We're gonna wrap this

613
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:56,320
Speaker 1: one up. If you guys have any questions or comments,

614
00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 1: you can let us know. You can let us know

615
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 1: on Facebook or Twitter. Are handled the is tech Stuff

616
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:05,120
Speaker 1: hs W, or you can email us. That email address

617
00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 1: is tech stuff at how stuff works dot com and

618
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,399
Speaker 1: Chris and I will talk to you again really soon.

619
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: For moralness and thousands of other topics. Visit how stuff

620
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:18,400
Speaker 1: works dot com. To learn more about the podcast, click

621
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:20,759
Speaker 1: on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of

622
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:24,840
Speaker 1: our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.

623
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you by the

624
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 1: Reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you