Technology Rules at Wimbledon

By Gregory Mone Posted 07.10.2007 at 12:16 pm 8 Comments

Tennis great Roger Federer appears to be vulnerable to only one thing at Wimbledon, the line-judging technology called Hawkeye. The system calculates the position of the ball at several points during its flight across the net, computes its trajectory, then uses this information to determine how the ball will compress and skid once it hits the grass. Now, when a player challenges a judge's call, Hawkeye takes over, and displays a virtual re-enactment of the ball's flight and bounce on screens around the stadium.

Federer, who defeated Rafael Nadal to win his fifth straight title at the famous grass courts, threw a mini-tantrum in the fourth set on Sunday when the technology ruled that one of Nadal's shots, called out by the judges, had actually glanced the line. The ruling temporarily threw him off his game, as Nadal captured the set and appeared to have the necessary momentum to win the match. Though he did prevail in the end, Federer did not have kind words for the technology, declaring at one point that it was "killing me." In an article in the Times and a detailed post on his site, Paul Hawkins, the inventor of the technology, fired back by saying that the ball was clearly in, and Wimbledon officials stood by Hawkeye, too.—Gregory Mone

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8 Comments

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popsci

07/10/07 at 4:08 pm

Cool when's this coming to baseball?

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popsci

07/10/07 at 4:50 pm

Uh, why not just use cameras? I would trust reality over any simulation.

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popsci

07/10/07 at 5:07 pm

It is interesting to wonder how John McEnroe (the bad boy of tennis) might have reacted if Hawkeye had been arond in his day?

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popsci

07/10/07 at 5:07 pm

It is interesting to wonder how John McEnroe (the bad boy of tennis) might have reacted if Hawkeye had been around in his day?

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popsci

07/11/07 at 8:14 am

You cant use a camera because the frame rate means you frequently dont see the ball land as it is travelling too fast.

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popsci

07/11/07 at 9:28 am

I'd understand why they wouldn't have Hawkeye turn on a high-speed (120 FPS)camera at the instant where they realize a call might be too close for a human Judge to call. That way they can show the players multiple views of the call in question.

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popsci

07/11/07 at 10:20 am

A camera would not be able to capture the footprint that the ball makes when it hits the ground (grass, harc court, or clay). There would inevitably be some curvature obscuring the view of the camera from capturing an image of the footprint.

Realize that Hawkeye does in fact use cameras to create the flightpath and footprint of the ball, so while you may not be viewing actual photographs or video, you are viewing the result of calculations made from captured video clips.

Also, technology similar to that developed by Hawkeye has already been introduced in many MLB stadiums. They started comparing the pitch calls of the umpires with the hawkeye to determine how accurate umpires actually are. They have not, however, integrated the technology into the rules of baseball as they have in tennis.

Hawkeye has also developed their technology for cricket stadiums. Visit http://www.hawkeyeinnovations.co.uk

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popsci

09/20/07 at 6:07 pm

Can sum1 please help me with my reading reports for science class? jk! hahahahahah!