Watch a soccer game from the point of view of the ball

A system that provides real-time information on the position of the ball, passes, a player's passage past his opponent, as well as the player's speed and the distance traveled, developed by a German institute and presented at the CeBit exhibition, held at the beginning of March in Hanover 

Scientists from the Fernhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits have developed a system known as RedFIR that makes it easier to analyze soccer games for training purposes. The system was presented yesterday (Monday) by Ingmar Bartz, an employee of the institute, at the institute's pavilion at the CeBit exhibition, which is currently being held in Hanover, Germany.

According to Bartz, the system provides real-time information on the position of the ball, passes, a player's passage past his opponent, as well as the player's speed and the distance traveled. The information collected during the game can be viewed and analyzed on tablets as well. In addition, it produces XNUMXD animation for use by media companies and trainers.

"The system includes permanent infrastructure in the stadium. Each ball and each player's body has a chip that transmits its location at any moment, in real time," Bartz said. He noted that "the processing of the information makes it possible to know how much each player has invested". The software counts the steps, the distance traveled by the player as well as whether he walked, ran slowly or sprinted. The information is available through an interface and is added to a database that enables future analysis of the entire game and comparison between the players.

At the beginning of the week, FIFA announced that the institute's technology and competing technology will be tested in order to be used to determine the position of the ball in the event of a dispute as to whether it crossed the goal line or not.

Bartz said that the idea in developing the system was not to interfere with the game itself. Therefore, a special ball was developed, which, despite the addition of the chip and the transmitter, meets FIFA's standards and its requirement that no weight be added to the ball. It should be noted that before each game it is necessary to charge the ball and the transmitters on the players' bodies.

The new system is installed in a stadium in Nuremberg, Germany, where it is used for demonstration and development. The institute is currently examining the possibility of installing another stadium.