Hawk-Eye is a computer vision system used in numerous sports such as cricket, tennis, Gaelic football, badminton, hurling, rugby union, association football and volleyball, to visually track the trajectory of the ball and display a profile of its statistically most likely path as a moving image.[1] The onscreen representation of the trajectory results is called Shot Spot.[2]
The Sony-owned Hawk-Eye system was developed in the United Kingdom by Paul Hawkins. The system was originally implemented in 2000 for television purposes in cricket.[3] The system works via six (sometimes seven) high-performance cameras, normally positioned on the underside of the stadium roof, which track the ball from different angles. The video from the six cameras is then triangulated and combined to create a three-dimensional representation of the ball's trajectory. Hawk-Eye is not infallible, but is advertised to be accurate to within 3.6 millimetres and generally trusted as an impartial second opinion in sports.[citation needed] It has been accepted by governing bodies in tennis, cricket and association football as a means of adjudication with different number of cameras depending on the sport. Hawk-Eye is used for the Challenge System since 2006 in tennis and Decision Review System in cricket since 2009. The system was rolled out for the 2013–14 Premier League season as a means of goal-line technology.[4] In December 2014, it was also adopted for the 2015–16 Bundesliga season.[5]