Inside the World Cup 2022’s high-tech ball position tracking technology

You may, like me, be surprised to learn there are a bunch of sensors inside the ball being used in the 2022 World Cup!

More details available at this article, but this World Cup is the first to incorporate this new ball-tracking technology. There’s an Ultra-wideband sensor, which along with antenna around the field can accurately track the ball’s position in space; as well as an Inertial Measurement Unit (similar to the one inside your very own Cube!) able to detect more granular data such as acceleration, rotation, etc. … at a rate of 500 times per second!

Along with existing technology to capture player movements, this new ball technology is expected to bring in a new era of real-time 3D graphics for game analysis, replays, player-perspective visualisations, off-side detection, etc. Super cool stuff!

There’s a short but very informative video on all the player and ball tracking tech at this tweet below: