Lean Thinker Challenge #3

If money is not a challenge, technology would be the best approach avoiding human error. My out of the box thinking says that in order to determine who touched the ball, and whether the ball made contact in the goal area, you will need three points of reference namely the player, the ball and the goal area.
So, we will need to equip the players with special gloves containing electronic “thread” which register with a sensor in the ball. The goal area should close the loop being cover with an electronic “net” which reads which player has the ball and whether the player had the ball in hand when it made contact with the goal area.
This will also determine which hand touched the ball first, and point out if it was the opposing or defending player who touched down the ball.
Blue sky thinking maybe, but not impossible….

Like Billy above, just thinking out loud, but I would think some sort of sensors on the knee and elbow pads and then again something in both noses of the football. I would also think you would also need some sort of sensors buried in the field as well, yard markers, out of bunds and goal lines. Sounds high Tech! TV already has first down lines put on for the viewers, so why not some sort of lazer beam and having the ball break the beam some how in conjuction with the sensors in the knee and elbow.

Technology *could* be used, but even technology is prone to problems; and I would think that the abuse the footballs are put through would make it especially challenging. What if, mid-game, the sensors fail? Even current cameras are not doing the trick. If we have to use technology, then perhaps we should outfit the goal areas with those 360-degree matrix camera arrays they use to show a scene from all angles, but those cameras will have to have clear line of sight and be out of harms reach.

If we don’t care about split-second results–in my opinion we probably shouldn’t since this is a human game not a technology game–perhaps we should look elsewhere. What if we ask the players to come up with ideas of how to detect sure-fire first downs and touchdowns? Perhaps it would require some rule changes to the game itself. Perhaps it would require some form of consensus decision that require a certain number of referees or observers (similar to the matrix camera array except human) to make their best judgment on what the majority saw, and we decide to let that stick, regardless of technicality? In other words, perhaps there’s a mindset change that’s needed.

Personally, I like the idea of changing the rules to be “leaner” or taking the simplest approach, and if that is not enough, involve people. Then, if all that fails, we reach for technology.

Of course, that all been said, I do realize that there’s a lot of money and pride at stake. So perhaps it’s not as simple as this.

Full disclosure: I know very little about football. 🙂

I believe that utilizing a RFID tracking in the football and in/around/above the field would be an easy enough implementation. Forward motion in football means that the ball gets brought to the forward most position prior to the whistle.
The crawling and rolling forward can be mitigated by connecting a piece of technology within the ref’s whistle that allows a snapshot of the balls location to be made. The then placement of the ball could be assisted by off field tracking personal.
Also, RFID can be lighter than a feather and enclosed in adhesive, so player would never be able to notice a difference in play.
Billy, great idea!