Chip-enabled soccer ball

Juniper Foo | Oct 28, 2005

Soon soccer balls could be smarter than the players, and it could be as early as next year's FIFA World Cup in Germany which has indicated interest in using the radio frequency-enabled ball in its 2006 match. The technology, developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, Adidas and software firm Cairos Technologies, can read the current position of the ball and the 22 players on the field at up to 2,000 times a second. The data is then picked up by antennas placed around the field and sent on to a central computer. The chip is also able to track if a ball has gone out of bounds, empowering referees who have to make crucial goal-line calls. While it's great to know for certain if Beckham deserved that red card appeal, where would soccer fans and hooligans be without any bad referee decisions left to boo at or iffy fouls to dispute over beer post-match? Sometimes, technology just sucks. (image from Adidas ad)

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Via PC World

Price: N.A.
Availability: Deadline 2006 FIFA World Cup
Device: Smart soccer ball
Basic specs: Based on ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) chip with integrated transmitter, uses 2.4GHz frequency range, 12 antennas in strategic locations pick up data

Filed under: Gadgets
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