Technology Once More

Watching Wimbledon and reading about advances in this year's edition drew my attention to the use of technology in sports once again. In comparison to cricket, England's Wimbledon has been a front-foot player with technology, incorporating the relevant ones in a progressive, uncoy manner. This year a few more upgradations have been conducted to technology used at Wibledon in partnershp with IBM.

While most advances are of the creamy variety designed for dissemination of information for a better viewership experience, some technology is more strawberry...lending substrance to the cream...a chew for the umpires and players to avail of to make the correct decision. In a way it complements the cream for a better spectator experience and a sense of fairness all around.

BBC Click was on about it, some talk in the Guardian as well. Since my interest in development for and application of technology in cricket is well known to regular readers of this blog, I decided to follow the leads to see what usable things lie ahead in cricket's way.

IBM's site also has a Wimbledon's case study. They have some explanatory videos there too.

The interesting one with respect to cricket decision making was Hawkeye technology for me. The two pdf documents ( Hawk-Eye Accuracy and Believability and Collingwood LBW Dismissal
The Brit Oval, England vs India ) there discusses stuff adequately. Both pros and limitations. Cricket may need more of course for catches and snicks, but Hawkeye make a strong case. Pitch variability remains the main problem.

A cricket pitch may vary in performance within handbreath's space. Pitch variability may affect the height, speed and direction of the ball after bouncing on the pitch. Therefore, Hawkeye may require a few balls for calibration. I speak as a layman of course and I am willing to be enlightened on this aspect. How does one get balls in all the spots with all the bowling variations? If calibration requires a few balls to elapse, then what about the decisions in the early overs?

There is no doubt that technology will improve the game experience for all, but we must have the correct technology, developed to an appropriateness and with space for modification.

Another practical problem is the logistics of having grounds covered by different data gathering gadgets all linked together. Knowing that billions of neurons exist in human data retrieval, monitoring and interpretation, and that kilometers of axons and dendrites are required in nature-packed perfectness for our falliable degree of efficiency, imagine the large amount of cabling and gadgetry that would be required for a day or five days in every ground ICC cricket is played in. Mindboggling! The videos on the sites, to which I have provided links above, mention kilometers of cabling for Wimbledon...expand that to a cricket field! and with sensors!

But before we boggle ourselves, let us remember the nanocomputers we have now at one time would have been unimaginable. Despite occupying buildings worth of space, they might still fall short in terms of computing power. So technology can create an advancement. And technology can also eliminate inconveniences.

Look at all the wireless activity we undertake in out daily life. A simple example no doubt....then think about the wireless activity being undertaken between a space flight and its tether on Earth! Then expand it further to probes going beyond the Solar System! That expensive technology has all comressed itself into an advanced and affordable hand held set you may call anything - iPhone to whatever.

Same with sensors...nanotechnology has blasted apart conventional ideas of technology and its application. We don't think in terms of screwdriver, pliers, wires, filaments and things like that...we think in terms of mood-sensing garments now! Honda (if I recall correctly) is thinking about a sensor fabric for the body of its cars!

No doubt such technology which can add to data collection and reduce transmission inconveniences are all expensive, but before Intel became a couch potato chip, computers used to be expensive too. So the cameras, music readers and so on...

Technology has always been a cascade in every sense, from improvements to dissemination to pricing. If there is a cascade up in one respect, there is also a cascading down effect in other aspects of it. Like price. When science and technology have to end in manufacture, and theerefore usage, they cannot afford to remain expensive for long.

I see technology playing an active part in sports. With all these frothy, creamy user appliances coming up, requirement for fundamental core application of technological systems will be required to maintain credibility under such vast and microscopic scrutiny by spectators. Cricket can become T-Rex and go sit in a museum, or it can invest in development of the kind of technology it needs and remain relevant and in harmonious vibrancy with the period it exists in.

There is always a third option for Cricket of course...it could disappear into the cubbyholes of whatever meadows that remain on this planet only to be redicovered centuries later like a living fossil at the bottom of the ocean of future man's interests.