While the glorious phenomenon that is Simone Biles was winning a fifth all‑around world gymnastics title last week with routines that included a triple-twisting double backflip during the floor exercise and a two‑flips‑two-twists dismount from the beam, she was doing things that the human eye could barely take in. But there were no worries that what she was doing might be missed.
Her every movement, and those of her 546 rivals, was being captured by three-dimensional laser sensors hidden inside boxes placed around the floor of the Stuttgart arena. Developed by Fujitsu, the system has at its centre an artificial intelligence system. Body measurements are taken from the competitors – in the case of the few who declined in Stuttgart, a standard template was used – and their movements are then tracked for position, angle and speed, instantly processed and fed to the competition judges in graphic form as a clear real-time analysis of every performance.
Written by Richard Williams
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/oct/14/armchair-viewers-laser-guided-rugby-union-kipchoge under the title “Armchair viewers get a glimpse of the future and it looks to be laser-guided | Richard Williams”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
