FIFA has been testing their new smart ball and goal-line technology during this year’s FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. After several testing of some other not-so-smart balls, this one seems to be the geek one who will always work. The ball has some very ET looking sensors inside and works responding to a “line” placed at each goal. Now referees will be facing much more tranquility during matches and will take responsibility off their minds and throw it on the little machine attached to their wrists.

The new smarty ball was tested by the players in Japan and compared to regular (stupid) balls. There was no difference between the two except that after practice the stupid balls felt very demoralized.

The systems takes just a day to install.

So here is how it works (according to Christian Holzer, the managing director of Cairos Technologies):

Unlike the initial technology, which was based on the positioning of several sensors around the pitch, the new smart ball involves far simpler logistics. Very thin cables, two millimetres in diameter, are laid in the ground at a depth of about 15-20 centimetres all the way around the goal. That creates a magnetic field that sends information to the chip embedded in the ball. When the ball crosses the line, the message ‘Goal’ appears on the watches of the four match officials.

Fifa says that “All possible situations were envisaged during rigorous testing of the technology. For example, no matter how hard the ball is kicked, there is no way the chip can be damaged. Furthermore, the fact that the message it sends is encrypted prevents it from being interfered with. The smart ball is now being trialled at the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2007 and so far no hitches whatsoever have been reported.”

Right. I guess we will just have to wait and see about those glitches. Maybe one day the referee will call a goal when the ball passes through the penalty mark.

[tags]smart ball, goal-line technology[/tags]