Important Facts For Prelims
Semi-Automated Offside Technology
- 30 Nov 2022
- 2 min read
Why in News?
Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is using Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) for offside decisions in the ongoing football world cup.
- The point of the offside rule is to prevent attacking players from perpetually camping in front of the opponent’s goal.
What is Semi-Automated Offside Technology?
- SAOT is a support tool for the video match officials and the on-field officials to help them make faster, more reproducible and more accurate offside decisions.
- There are two parts to the technology — a sensor inside the match ball that is held using suspension technology, and existing tracking tools that are part of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.
- Every time the ball is hit, data is sent in real time (at a whopping 500 frames per second) to a network of antennae installed around the playing field.
- Additionally, there are 12 Hawk-Eye cameras set up around the turf that shadow both the ball and the players, with as many as 29 separate points in the human body tracked.
- The coming together of the ball sensor and the Hawk-Eye cameras is in effect SAOT.
- These two data sets are run through artificial intelligence software which generates automated alerts about offsides to the match officials. This replaces the manual effort taken in poring over replays for minutes on end.
