The English Premier League will abandon the controversial VAR Offside system in favor of dozens of iPhones for the new season.
The new video assistant referee system, provisionally named "Dragon," was developed by Genius Sports and its subsidiary Second Spectrum, known for their video tracking collaboration with the NBA. The system will rely on multiple iPhone 14 devices that will capture high-frame-rate video from various angles, with specialized artificial intelligence software analyzing the footage.
- The offside rule was introduced in football in 1883, seemingly increasing the number of contentious moments during matches. Sometimes, even with a dozen cameras, it can be difficult to determine whether a player is offside, which prompted the use of more advanced systems. Semi-automated tools made their debut during the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2024, employing up to 15 cameras and a sensor inside the ball to track multiple body points of each player, but they struggled to capture moments perfectly.
According to Genius, their new "Dragon" system will initially utilize at least 28 iPhone 14 cameras and newer models at each Premier League stadium, which could potentially continuously track between 7,000 and 10,000 body points of players.
The smartphones will be housed in individual waterproof cases with fans connected to a power source. The team has developed mounts that can accommodate up to four iPhones together.
Dragon will be able to stream up to 200 frames per second, but initially at a lower rate, and later it will automatically identify significant events expected to happen in seconds and temporarily increase the frame rate on specific cameras.
Source: Wired
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