iPhone replaces VAR to catch offside in the Premier League

According to Wired, sports technology and data companies Genius Sports and Second Spectrum have developed a new system called Dragon. The Premier League organizers will use this system in all matches starting this season to replace the VAR system with offside situations.

iPhone replaces VAR to catch offside in the Premier League Picture 1

The new technology is based on at least 28 phones of the iPhone 14 model and above that are covered in waterproof cases and equipped with cooling fans for long-term operation. The iPhones will be placed around the field, recording high frame rate video from many different angles on the field and transmitting the signal to the control room.

Each field, the location of Apple's phone may be different, but it is fixed when the match takes place, avoiding situations where the control software must be recalibrated.

Dragon is capable of tracking large amounts of data from 7,000 to 10,000 points per player, recording details such as body contours, muscle mass and even bone structure. The system records at up to 100 frames per second to help provide clearer views of when the ball leaves the passing player's foot or the relative position of the defender and striker, helping to ensure clear decisions. taste more accurate.

The iPhones send data to AI software to analyze footage to detect offside situations and the referee will still be the one to make the final decision.

In addition to replacing VAR to catch offsides in the Premier League, Dragon can add many other uses in the future such as creating digital copies of players to analyze actions or supporting referees in other situations above. like blowing a penalty or drawing a card.

Modern optical tracking systems require expensive fiber optic cables, servers for connection, or computers responsible for managing the collected data. But with the iPhone as powerful as the supercomputers of more than 20 years ago, it can handle both of those tasks quite well on its own.

Genius Sports representative said the new system is easy to customize, the investment cost is not too large and can be upgraded in the future, so it is of interest to many other major football tournaments. In particular, the system has the ability to expand or contract; a system of at least 10 cameras or at most 100 cameras still works well at a stadium.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 16 August 2024