Now why can’t they do that so when the ball crosses the goal line it sends a signal to say it is a touchdown much like a curling rock going over the line and being burned.
I guess they can measure from the center of the ball to the extremity and set the receivers accordingly because if the resolution is to low is only of use if the ball itself crosses the goal line it would be of no use.
Exactly what I was thinking.
I also wonder when this will be used in real games and you will see the different color trace / options on TSN? Similar to what you see now on a PGA televised event.
Pretty cool.
Yup. Kinda cool.
…as the ball is not a sphere I could see a solution in using two sensors, one at each point of the ball…for resolution if the PGA can track a golf ball in flight with accuracy then tracking an embedded sensor in a football from only 30-40 yards away shouldn’t be a problem…c’mon NASA, get on this…
The problem is that the edge of the ball that “breaks” the plane of the goal-line could be any of many distances from an imbedded chip depending of how the ball is held … same issue in hockey as a puck on end that is on end can fully cross the goal line before a puck that lies flat.
I am not an engineer, so no answers here. I am sure someone can come up with a solution…The problem is if they were able to do it, it would eliminate all the talking, speculating, questions, answers and discussion as to whether it was a TD or not. and how bad the refs are after the decision is confirmed/overturned at the command centre 
Great idea. The problem I see is when a player spikes the ball, or the ball being kicked/punted.
How will that sensor hold up.
Presumably one could incorporate accelerometers to determine both the position of the centroid of the ball and the ball’s orientation in relation to the ground. This information should be enough to determine if a given edge of the ball has crossed the plane of goal.
how they gonna prevent players from throwing these balls into the stands?
I can't see it being expensive tech
Just use rfid and bury a line. Rfid in ball at extremities. Cheap.
Will the sensor also be able to detect whether or not the player’s knee touched the ground before the ball crossed the plane?
I do believe that the special teams use their own footballs. Presumably they would not have sensors in them. As for spikes and TD celebrations, I don’t see it being an issue if the sensor isn’t moving around inside the football.
Exactly. RFID has been around for years and is relatively inexpensive now. It’s used all kind of products.
The data is in from the footballs used at the Combine
[tr][td]FASTEST THROW[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]Chris Merchant[/td]
[td]50.3 MPH[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]Michael O’Connor[/td]
[td]50.3 MPH[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]Sonny Weishaupt[/td]
[td]49.1 MPH[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]HIGHEST SPIN RATE[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]Chris Merchant[/td]
[td]757 RPMs (Overall avg. 644 RPMs)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]Sonny Weishaupt[/td]
[td]726 RPMs (Overall avg. 515 RPMs)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]Michael O’Connor[/td]
[td]666 RPMs (Overall avg. 532 RPMs)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]QUICKEST RELEASE TIME[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]Chris Merchant[/td]
[td].31 sec (overall avg .48 sec)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]Michael O’Connor[/td]
[td].32 sec (overall avg .42 sec)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][td]Sonny Weishaupt[/td]
[td].33 sec (overall avg .44 sec)[/td]
[/tr]
I like seeing this information. I would really like to see how it compares to some of the QBs in the league already.
(are you listening SULLY?)
Connect the chip to a mesh embedded in the cover. Of course… it might be 1/8th of an inch off that way. Obviously a bad idea.
From reading briefly, it doesn't sound like that would work. They appear to function more along the lines of the accelerometers in most smart phones. Or are you just talking for sensing crossing the plane? I suppose that depends on if it the chips can be extended and sense like that. Perhaps they can. We know rfid works in a similar fashion