'iPhone-based offside judgment' technology to be introduced in the Premier League, the pinnacle of professional soccer
Genius Sports, a leading sports data technology company, has been appointed as the Premier League's semi-automated referee supplier. The deal will see the Premier League's Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT), which combines dozens of iPhones with machine learning models to determine offside decisions for the world's most-watched soccer league.
Genius Sports to supply Semi-Automated Offside Technology for the Premier League | News | Genius Sports
iPhones will help decide offside violations in English soccer this season - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/14/24220197/iphone-offside-violation-ai-detection-soccer-video-assistant-referee-english-premier-league
In the 2023-24 season, there were several misjudgments caused by VAR in the Premier League. Nevertheless, the Premier League has decided to continue using VAR in the 2024-25 season.
VAR can track 29 different parts of the body of players in a match, but it still has limitations. Genius Sports lists VAR's disadvantages as 'significant delays (long pauses in the game before a decision is made), human process errors, and 'concerns about the accuracy of decisions during the game.'
Genius Sports' SAOT is a technology that has been introduced to the Premier League as a way to compensate for the shortcomings of VAR. Genius Sports' SAOT is powered by
According to Genius Sports, SAOT can accurately create 3D renderings of players in a match, helping the referee determine exactly where the offside line is on the field and where all the players are in relation to it. SAOT uses Genius Sports' proprietary computer vision system, which requires multiple cameras to achieve this. 'We were trying to move away from the fairly expensive 4K cameras. We wanted to see if we could use more affordable smartphone cameras instead,' Genius Sports said in an interview, revealing that they ultimately used multiple iPhones instead of 4K cameras. The reason Genius Sports chose the iPhone is because 'it's what Genius Sports employees are most familiar with, mainly in terms of software development.'
According to Matt Fleckenstein, Chief Product Officer at Genius Sports, 24 to 28 iPhones (mainly iPhone 15 Pro) need to be placed on the pitch to evenly cover the pitch and sidelines. Two custom rigs that can hold two iPhones at once are placed on the pitch at slightly different angles to ensure coverage of the area. The iPhones will record video at 100fps during the game, and all data will be sent to an on-premise server and processed by GeniusIQ.
This allows Genius Sports to take '7,000 to 10,000' data points and generate something like a 3D virtual mesh for each player. 'Having that many data points means the system can tolerate loss of detail due to things like lighting issues,' Fleckenstein said.
SAOT was built on the fundamental principles of speed and precision to ensure accuracy and minimal disruption to soccer matches. SAOT's level of data collection is significantly greater than any other refereeing system in global sports, enabling it to make incredibly accurate offside decisions.
The Premier League also launched an official X-account, Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) , on August 13, 2024 local time, to provide information on the decisions of each match. The Premier League official explained that the account will 'post factual commentary on the referee's decisions on the pitch, the involvement of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), and the role of technology in the decision-making process.' While the Premier League does not allow live broadcasts of VAR audio, the Premier League Match Centre will provide information such as 'how VAR made decisions during the match' in near real time.
Premier League launches Premier League Match Center account on X
https://www.premierleague.com/news/4081343
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