How Technology is Changing Sports
Technology has left an impact on almost everything that we witness today and has made life easier and more accessible. Healthcare, construction, transportation, energy, connectivity and housing are some of the many industries that have reached new heights with technology and are still climbing every second, making use of new technological advancements. Now let us take sports. Sports has always been the area of physicality rather than technology. Even though one might not see an apparent link between sports and technology, but the industry is highly dominated by the latter. We bring you five such technologies that are changing the landscape of the sporting events.
Hawk-Eye Technology
As the name suggests, the technology analyses the trajectory and flight of a moving object through a series of high-end cameras situated at an elevated angle than the field of play. It is also termed as bird’s eye view by some, due to the upraised field of view. The technology has been in use for over a decade now, most commonly seen in tennis, cricket, volleyball and rugby. The technology has received critical acclaim as it has proved to be more accurate than the eye of the human judges. Most importantly, it has significantly diminished instances where the match referee received criticism based on their decisions. With quick analysis of the movement of the balls, the umpires can take error-free decisions or alter the decision of the on-field umpires to ensure a smooth and fair game.
Digital Training of Athletes with Virtual Reality
There is no debate that physical training is the king when it comes to athletes and their success. But there exists a need to sharpen reflexes, improve awareness and to tone the hand-eye coordination to be able to be entirely ready, at least in some of the sporting events. Virtual Reality (VR) has been implemented to help athletes just that. Although the technology is just new, VR for sports training is gaining momentum faster than many anticipated. Multiple athletes are now giving VR more and more of their time to decrease their response time and keep ahead in the game.
For VR in golf, athletes use certain applications which make use of radar and other systems to analyse the shots and movements of the player and churn out the numbers for deeper analysis. On the other hand, a venture named STRIVR Labs created a VR training regime for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Mikaela Shiffrin, a member of the team, won gold in her event. The regime included an immersive experience of the Jeongseon course, considered to be one of the toughest in the competition. The VR headsets allowed the athletes to be present at the course whenever and wherever they wanted, helping them ease off the pressure.
Vanishing Spray
On June 12, 2014, referee Yuichi Nishimura unhooked a can from his belt and sprayed foam with it on the field to mark the 10-yard line which needs to be respected by the players in the event of a free-kick. Little did he know that he had created history. The 2014 FIFA World Cup game between Brazil and Croatia witnessed the use of the vanishing spray/foam for the first time in a football World Cup game. The spray helps the referee mark important areas during a game with the foam, which then vanishes after 60 seconds. Although it sounds simple, the technology has taken the world by storm and has been introduced to most of the major competitions around the world.
Ingestible Thermometer
Some sports require an ability to continuously move, run and exert force, which can cause heat exhaustion, dehydration and even low blood sugar levels. Excessive exhaustion from heat is an unfortunate reality in many sports, most dominantly in rugby (football) and soccer. Rugby players have to wear extensive padding and train during the summer days, while soccer players have to run at high speed to keep up with the pace of the game, which generally lasts over an hour and a half. Moreover, several players in rugby have high body mass which helps them pose a solid defence in the game but also exposes them to a risk of dehydration and exhaustion.
In order to keep a check on the vitals of the players and be ready for any such case, athletes often use an ingestible thermometer pill. Originally created to monitor the vitals of in-flight astronauts, the pill swiftly made its way to the sporting arenas after a series of shocking deaths, which saw athletes exhausting themselves to the point of no return. Once the pill is ingested, the systems show the vital information required to keep a check on the player’s instant fitness and prevent any heart-related condition. The pill is successful as it removes the need for any wires and probes but streams the necessary information wirelessly in real-time.
Live-Streaming of Sporting Events
Televising rights of sporting events have always been the money-making machine. With exclusive television rights, both the broadcaster and the sporting league earn tons of money. The grandness of the sector can be assessed from the fact that multiple reports state that the sports media sector will rise to USD 78.5 billion in 2021. But technology has once again stepped in to raise the stakes, this time with live-streaming applications. The ability to watch any sporting event on the go through their mobile device is sure roping in huge numbers and viewers are moving from television sets to their handheld devices.
It is often said; where there is a sport, there is emotion and money.
Many top ventures have already developed or are in the process of developing their live streaming applications. The numbers are high, and the rewards even higher. For example, the streaming applications Hotstar saw over 10 million viewers tune in to watch the final of the 2018 Indian Premier League between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). The viewers are expected to rise with each event and the streaming applications are inevitably going to change the way the world sees sports.
