VERY cool stuff here. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...-shoulder-pads-zebra-speed-tracking/13382443/ To give you the short version, the NFL will install receivers and sensors in 17 stadiums around the league (including Miami's) which allow RFID disc devices to be placed inside players' shoulder pads that will use GPS data that is precise to within 6 inches to provide push-button television content that enhances the broadcast. Examples showin the visual aids include diagrams of routes being run by receivers, tracks taken by defenders, distances run, player speeds, etc. They have the ability to track acceleration, top end speed, amount of separation (distance) between two players at any given time. They can split this data quarter-by-quarter, for example using acceleration and speed data to see which players are slowing down in the fourth quarter, etc. None of this information will be provided to NFL teams for use in evaluation, it is my understanding. The NFL is using it only for the broadcasts while it investigates the manner in which the information could be used to develop better evaluations. The company the NFL has partnered with is also developing devices using bluetooth technology that will measure player heart rates, lung capacity and body temperature as things that may have value in evaluation. Many teams already use this sort of stuff, but only internally during their practices and mostly with the aim of determining player workloads and figuring out ideal schedules, etc. The Dolphins are a team that uses the technology to that end. All of this will almost surely revolutionize pro scouting as soon as it is made available to the teams. However, as this stuff will only be in use in the NFL, obviously it will be some time before it could bleed into college scouting.
Cool stuff indeed. I've often wondered, also, why they wouldn't use some system that would accurately measure the ball and it's spot, say, on first downs/TDs/etc instead of relying on bad spots by refs. I know it's technologically VERY possible right now.
Heart rates would be so amazing to see in pressure situations! Imagine seeing Brady's heart rate as he has one of his tantrums.
THE NBA beat the NFL to this by 2 years. This will be an invaluable tool for in depth league scouting.
While FIFA has just managed to begin implementing goal-line technology here's what's happening in the 21st century. Awesome!
The NBA has advantages. They don't use RFID chips like the NFL will be using. They use fixed camera technology. The NFL investigated that option and found that certain realities of the game, the size of the field, the outdoor stadiums, etc...make this an impossible option for them to use. The fixed camera technology would probably be the best course otherwise.
As the article said, since the technology is only good to within 6 inches, there would be no point putting a chip in the ball. The visuals and camera angles generally get it more accurate than a chip would. Other thing is, where the hell do you put the chip? The ball is oblong shaped.
What about some sort of modification of motion capture technology? A sort of mesh layer inside the skin.
On the contrary, at first this data is ONLY going to be public via television broadcasts. According to the article the NFL isn't going to share the data with the NFL teams. My guess is they'll give them the data in 2015 so that they can use it in their pro scouting efforts.
it would be awesome if they did. The NBA does this..where you can research (through video) every single midrange shot a guy took. it would be GREAT, if they had readily available (through video), every single pass route a guy ran in a particular year.
I think the route tree diagrams shown on live broadcasts could be cool. They can show Brian Hartline running an out-and-up.
I meant more along the lines of raw data available for analysis. I'm sure they'll share data points during games, but that really is going to be more anecdotal than enlightening IMO.
I would be most interested in using the data to identify how fast a WR gets out of his breaks, consistency of his route-running, etc.
Why would the NFL put the raw data out for public consumption? In what form would they even put said "raw data"?
For analysis, in hopes of better understanding the game. They could offer it in the same form they offer play by play. Ideally they just are giving people access to a database, but thats really a pipe dream for me. With this type of data, we are really talking about potentially huge leaps in identifying how the game works. I used the example above about identifying accuracy and consistency of route-running. Thats just the tip of the iceberg.
I don't know if you're really thinking about the sheer volume of data that are coming in from these things. There are two RFID chips on every player, and each RFID chip pings back to the sensors in the stadium I think about 25 to 30 times per second. The "raw data" is an ocean of numbers. You can't just dump that into the public sphere. They have to develop sophisticated software programs just to translate this ocean of data into a route diagram which can be displayed on television, etc. In order to make that "raw data" available to the public, it can't be "raw" at all. You're basically asking them to spend a sh-t ton of resources in order to generate content out of the ocean of numbers, and to what end? What are they getting out of it?
You could reduce it to about 10 data points per player per play. That is about ~7MM data points per season. Its a large amount of data, but we are living in a world of big data and it is very feasible. They are already spending the resources. They're collecting the data already. Its being stored in a data warehouse. The only question is who will have access to the data. In terms of what they can get out of it, there are plenty of identifiable benefits for the league. The obvious one being revenue. They could charge a huge premium for access to this data. Thats aside from the fact that increasing insight into the game itself is a good thing.
Having said all that, I still don't believe the NFL would make this readily available to the public. I have a suspicion that the league doesn't really want people to gain more insight into the game itself.
