Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye is a computer vision system used to visually track the trajectory of a ball and display a profile of its statistically most likely path as a moving image.
[3] It works via the use of up to ten high-performance cameras, normally positioned on the underside of the stadium roof, which track the ball from different angles.
It also "predicts" the future flight path of the ball and where it will interact with any of the playing area features already programmed into the database.
[6] The system generates a graphic image of the ball path and playing area, which means that information can be provided to judges, television viewers or coaching staff in near real-time.
The tracking system is combined with a back-end database and archiving capabilities so that it is possible to extract and analyse trends and statistics about individual players, games, ball-to-ball comparisons, etc.
Paul Hawkins and David Sherry submitted a United Kingdom patent application for the technology, but this was subsequently withdrawn.
[6] All of the technology and intellectual property was spun off into a separated company, Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd, based in Winchester, Hampshire.
[7][8] The acquisition was intended to strengthen Wisden's presence in cricket and allow it to enter tennis and other international sports, with Hawk-Eye working on implementing a system for basketball.
[12] The third umpire is now able to see the projected path of the ball too, and Hawk-Eye is currently sanctioned in international cricket even though some doubts remain about its accuracy.
Due to its real-time coverage of bowling speed, the system is also used to show delivery patterns of a bowler's behaviour such as line and length, or swing/turn information.
These errors prompted talks about line calling assistance especially as the Auto-Ref system was being tested by the U.S. Open at that time and was shown to be very accurate.
Hawk-Eye reported that the New York tests involved 80 shots being measured by the ITF's high speed camera, a device similar to MacCAM.
[citation needed] This was explained to be an error in the way the tennis ball was shown on the graphical display as a circle, rather than as an ellipse.
The 2006 Hopman Cup in Perth, Western Australia, was the first elite-level tennis tournament where players were allowed to challenge point-ending line calls, which were then reviewed by the referees using Hawk-Eye technology.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal accused the system of incorrectly declaring an out ball to be in following his exit.
The umpire had called a ball out; when Mikhail Youzhny challenged the decision, Hawk-Eye said it was in by 3 mm.
[17] Youzhny said after that he himself thought the mark may have been wide but then offered that this kind of technology error could easily have been made by linesmen and umpires.
Teymuraz Gabashvili, in his first round match against Roger Federer, made the first-ever Hawk-Eye challenge on Centre Court.
GLT is not compulsory and, owing to the cost of Hawk-Eye and its competitors, systems are only deployed in a few high-level competitions.
[citation needed] Its usage has decreased significantly and is now only used within the World Championships and very rarely in any other tournament on the snooker tour.
Over the previous two seasons there had been many calls for the technology to be adopted, especially from Kildare fans, who saw two high-profile decisions go against their team in important games.
[40] Hawk-Eye determined that Offaly substitute Peter Cunningham's attempted point had gone wide 10 minutes into the second half.
[41] Use of Hawk-Eye was suspended during the 2013 All-Ireland SHC semi-finals on 18 August due to a human error during a minor (under-18) hurling game between Limerick and Galway.
[42] During the minor game, Hawk-Eye ruled a point for Limerick as a miss although the graphic showed the ball passing inside the posts, causing confusion around the stadium – the referee ultimately waved the valid point wide provoking anger from fans, viewers and TV analysts covering the game live.
[citation needed] The incident drew attention from the UK, where Hawk-Eye had made its debut in English football's Premier League the day before.
[48][49][50] The GAA confirmed on 15 July that Hawk-Eye would return for the All-Ireland SHC final, following comprehensive testing and a full review of the score detection technology.
[51] Hawk-Eye malfunctioned again during the 2023 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final clash between Armagh and Monaghan after it returned a "data unavailable" message.
[55][56][57] On 4 July 2013, the Australian Football League announced that they would be testing Hawk Eye technology to be used in the Score Review process.
Cyclops is a computer system which has been used on the ATP and WTA professional tennis tours as an electronic line judge since 1980, now superseded by Hawk-Eye at Grand Slam tournaments.
FoxTenn is another competing system for electronic line judge calling[63] which uses real data to trace back ball path and marking, including on clay surfaces.
