The HOT SPOT Technology

The Saga of LBW and Caught Behind

        In the early eighties, they introduced Stump Cameras to detect LBW and caught behinds, which served as a helper for the umpires to provide accurate decision. But, as years went on,the technology grew along with cricket and saw the invention of Snickometers in nineties. Still, the people of Channel 9, one of the great broadcasters of cricket in the world, were not satisfied. So, they invented The Hawk-Eye Technology in 2002.

      
       Still the big technocrat giants didnt sleep. They wanted to make another technology which will be still more accurate in judging these factors. So, they invented The HOT SPOT Technology during the 2006 Ashes Series.

What is hot spot?
       It is an infra-red imaging system, which employs infra-red cameras to capture the happenings of the ground. The basic principle of physics is applied here, which states that, infra-red rays are emitted by hot bodies. Hence, when two bodies come into contact, the impact produces some heat, which emits infra-red rays. Special infra red cameras are used to capture these images.

          Two or more infra-red cameras are situated in suitable parts of the ground on both the sides. They constantly record the proceedings of the ground. They are brought into effect, when there is a suspicion on whether the ball hit the bat or pad in the case of a Leg Before Wicket (lbw) appeal; and also to detect the edge in the case of a Caught Behind appeal.
       

            The infra red camera shows a series of color spectrum, which depicts the range of heat distribution in the focused area. When, the ball makes an impact on either the bat or pad, the heat generated is shown by a white spot on the impact area. From this, we can conclude the result. This technology is more accurate and produces the best result than the previous techniques. The above pictures shows two typical infra red images recorded by the IR camera. THe impact produced by the ball on the bat and pad can be seen by the white spot.

           The following video shows how hot spot proved to be correct at a place where Snickometer judged wrongly in a test match between Sri Lanka & England. The Snicko suggested an edge, where as the Hot Spot proved its predecessor wrong.

Why India Cannot Use it
            One of the major drawback in Hot Spot technology is that it cannot be used in the Subcontinent countries and South Africa. This is because, the average temperature of these places is usually 30 deg Celsius, which is very high for an IR camera to capture it as the whole capture area will be white, hence, any faint edges cant be determined by this technique.
            
              Apart from this, the Hot Spot proved to be a very healthy and useful innovation in the field of cricket. But, there is no end to innovations, as in future we might see even better techniques or even better improvisations of this technique can be done so that it can also be used in hotter countries.

The Hawk-Eye Technology

We all watch live telecasting of games like Cricket and Tennis!
                In the 2011 Cricket World Cup final at Wankhede Stadium, when Malinga dropped the ball short with low bounce, and Sehwag playing on the back foot, got the ball rammed straight on his front pads. When the umpire raised his finger, the whole stadium got muted. Sehwag asked for the review, and the Hawk-Eye technology was used to check the correctness of the ball.

        Or in Tennis, when Nadal played a back-hand against Federer to score a point on the edge of the line, Hawk-Eye Technology was used to check the point where the ball pitched.

         Have we ever wondered how the Hack-Eye Technology for the ball-tracking works on?

        Hawk-Eye is a complex computer system used in cricket, tennis and other sports to visually track the trajectory of the ball and display a record of its most statistically likely path as a moving image based on the position, orientation and angle of movement of the previous positions of the ball.

        It was developed by engineers at Roke Manor Research Limited of Romsey, Hampshire in the UK, in 2001. Hawk-Eye systems are based on the principles of triangulation using the visual images and timing data provided by at least four high-speed video cameras located at different locations and angles around the playing area. The system rapidly processes the video feeds by a high-speed video camera and ball tracker. A data store contains a predefined model of the playing area and the data on the rules of the game.

        In each frame sent from each camera, the system identifies the group of pixels which corresponds to the image of the ball. It then calculates for each frame the 3D position of the ball by comparing its position on at least two of the physically separate cameras at the same instant in time. A succession of frames builds up a record of the path along which the ball has traveled. It also predicts the future flight path of the ball and where it will interact with any of the playing area features that are already programmed into the database. The system can also be used to interpret these interactions to make decisions on the state of the game based on the rules that are fed into it.

       The system generates a 3D graphic image of the ball path and playing area, which means that information can be provided to judges, television viewers or coaching staff in near real time.

Hawk-Eye In Games
            Recently, Hawk-Eye Technology has also been incorporated in Cricket related games, to provide more realistic effects to it. Codemasters Inc got the license for using the Hawk-Eye technology in the games which they develop and it was been used in its recent games like, Brian Lara International Cricket 2007, Ashes Cricket 2009, International Cricket 2010 and Smash Court Tennis 3.

              This is just the starting phase of the Technology, of later, we could see lots of developments and innovations made in this technology, as its the era of technology and innovations.