World Cup Wonders!

Despite all the controversies over rescinding red card suspensions, inflated ticket prices and hydration breaks, and sadly Scotland’s early exit, I have to say that I am enthralled by the World Cup (for non-football fans that’s the ‘Soccer’ World Cup, currently playing out in Canada, Mexico and the USA). Who can’t be but impressed by the speed, skill and determination of the world’s best players and teams! But while we watch in awe of the players’ abilities, give some thought to the technology (and the underpinning IP) which is enhancing our enjoyment of the tournament.

We’re probably all familiar with innovations in sport foot ware, and football boots are no exception. Leading boot manufacturers have extensive patent portfolios protecting their proprietary technology, like Nike’s Gripknit sticky textiles sewn into boots to increase ball control under all weather conditions and favoured by leading goalscorers like Norway’s Erling Haaland…… England fans will be hoping this doesn’t play a significant part in their quarter final playoff!

Less familiar perhaps is the technology used to track ball and player movement around the pitch, to support referee decision making.

The official FIFA match ball, Adidas Trionda ^TM, which is protected by trade marks, designs and patents, has been aerodynamically designed to include sensors for use with the Video Assisted Referee (VAR) system, to minimise human error in decision making. Side mounted sensors, developed by Kinexon and embedded within the ball panel, detect touch, speed, spin, movement and trajectory 500 times a second and transmit the data to the VAR system.

A bank of cameras around the pitch and stadium tracks each player and the ball in real time using a system developed by Hawk-Eye Innovations. Combining the ball data with the camera data allows the system to build a 3D picture of the match in real time to allow VAR officials to make more accurate handball, goal-line and offside decisions.

Perhaps the most striking innovation in this World cup is the introduction of player’s ‘digital twin’ or 3D avatar in VAR simulations of offside decisions. The system, developed by Lenovo, involves physically scanning each player to capture their precise dimensions to produce an AI generated 3D avatar, allowing optical tracking cameras to monitor 29 body parts on each player throughout the match. It was this technology that led to Columbia’s goal against Portugal being disallowed as the player’s toe was deemed offside!

While some of us may disagree with the referee’s decisions ….after all, he still has the final word….. it’s difficult to argue with the tech and VAR data on which he relies.