Eagle-eye is not sharp: Hawk-eye creator
Simon Briggs
The Daily Telegraph
First Published : 09 Dec 2010 07:01:13 PM IST
MELBOURNE: The way that TV referrals are being handled at the Ashes has been called into question by Paul Hawkins, the founder of Hawk-Eye, who believes that inaccurate ball-tracking could lead to wrong decisions.
Hawkins has produced evidence of an error during the second Test at Adelaide, where an lbw appeal against Marcus North was inaccurately processed by 'Virtual Eye’ — a rival ball-tracking system employed by host broadcasters at Channel Nine.
“In this instance we measured a 4.5cm distance between the actual point of impact and the one reported by Virtual Eye,” Hawkins told Telegraph Sport, although he admitted the discrepancy had not led to an umpiring error.
“Virtual Eye has trouble identifying the impact point between the ball and the batsman’s pad. Will we have to wait until there is a major controversy before any action is taken?”
Virtual Eye — or 'Eagle Eye’, as it is known in Australia — has been developed by a New Zealand-based company, Animation Research Ltd, and has provided ball-tracking services for series in Australia, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
In contrast to Hawk-Eye’s more automated system, Virtual Eye uses an operator to look at the screen and select the frame which best represents the point of impact.
Ian Taylor, their managing director, admitted there had been a human error in the processing of the North delivery. However, he insisted the operator had realised his error, and only allowed the projection to be shown because he knew it would not affect the outcome of the review.
No matter which point of impact is chosen, North had still been hit outside the line of off-stump, and thus could not be given out lbw.
“We are quite conscious that something we do might decide the Ashes, and we are completely confident that our technology will give the right decision,” Taylor said. “Our cameras process 230 frames per second, which is about twice as many as Hawk-Eye’s system.”
Taylor claims he has clips showing ball-tracking errors made by Hawk-Eye. He suggested the International Cricket Council might consider funding a second video operator to run the Virtual Eye system, given the intensity of the demands.
