A ‘snitch’ ball for smarter football between smartphones and ‘Big Data’

New technologies have been making it possible for some time for us to see football as a much more enriching experience than sitting on the couch and turning on the television. Data, metrics and advanced analytics are the order of the day with the consolidation of ‘big data’ and its integration as part of a game to which advances arrived almost a decade ago in the form of VAR to prevent errors from occurring. scandalous and thus favor a fairer sport, reversing human errors that could condition the results of the matches.

As the years go by, controversies continue about the reasons why he intervenes or not in a specific play, as well as decisions that are not to everyone’s liking despite being reviewed again and again by the video arbitration system. The so-called VAR would benefit from TVs like those recently presented by the South Korean firm Samsung: 60 frames per second is the speed at which the cameras record assists, goals, fouls and offsides. All this so that the images reach homes in high definition and even in some, the luckiest ones, in 4K or what is the same: ultra high definition.

However, despite those 60 images per second, the legs, boots and balls are blurred and a centimeter in front or behind can leave the player offside and the team out of the championship. Or it is key for a goal to be a ghost or go up on the scoreboard. Sharpness is key to re-referring plays and artificial intelligence has managed to define the strokes well. “It is capable of better fluidity in small objects,” says Monsoon Kim, corporate vice president of Samsung Electronics. The new televisions from the South Korean firm, thanks to the AI ​​Motion Enhancer Pro tool, are capable of improving the image in quick actions “so that it is more fluid and clear,” details the technological manager. “It’s a dream for sports fans,” he adds.

Equipped in the QLED Neo series, AI is also capable of listening to what is happening in the stadium “and allows for a better experience,” says Nacho Monge, director of Samsung Iberia’s TV business. This year’s Active Voice Amplifier Pro excels at extracting dialogue from background noise, ensuring every word is heard clearly. Furthermore, these new televisions understand and adapt to the user’s needs. AI Auto Game mode activates during games, optimizing visuals and audio for an even more immersive and engaging gaming experience.

The AI ​​Customization mode adjusts the image for each scene based on the user’s preferences, while the AI ​​Energy mode saves energy without compromising image quality that is increasingly important to view a Euro Cup that is played online for almost half of the young people in Spain (between 18 and 29 years old), according to a survey carried out by DE-CIX, the world’s main operator of internet exchange points.

An image that also seems vital for smartphones that want to stand out among fans. The V40 and V40 Lite 5G of the V series that the Chinese company Vivo presented before the opening match between Germany and Scotland at the Allianz Arena in Munich are very present at the German event. Ideal terminals for consuming audiovisual content taking into account the 6.78 AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, in which the power is provided by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor, and a battery that draws almost as much attention like the 50 megapixels of its cameras. It is the first mid-range terminal designed jointly with the well-known photography firm ZEISS.

In recent years, some innovations have been introduced to perfect the happy VAR tool, but it is unlikely that the arbitration controversy will end. The great establishments of world football continue in the search for perfect football, and in the Euro Cup in Germany a microchip will be used inside the Adidas ball – called Fussballiebe, which in German means ‘love of football’ – which helps determine if it has there was a handball before a goal and also to assist in offside decisions. The microchip will send data 500 times per second, and will work in conjunction with limb-tracking technology that allows for the real-time creation of 3D visual representations of players’ skeletons. What difference is there with what we can find so far? Currently, when there is a handball in attack or defense and the referee goes to the VAR monitor to see the replay, he does so with the image of the play, not with a 3D representation. Of course, in the end the referee’s decision will prevail over intentionality.

For the first time in a European Championship, the tournament has semi-automatic offside technology, which provides more accurate and faster information when drawing the lines of the field to determine whether or not a player is offside. Likewise, it will have the Goal-Line Technology (GLT) system – known as Hawkeye – to know in milliseconds whether a ghost goal is a goal or not. A very interesting complement with very high reliability and that determines whether the ball enters or not quickly and objectively. It deploys seven cameras per goal, using control software to track the ball within the goal area.