“The drama of a player shouting and making a challenge, and the crowd watching the screen and waiting for Hawk-Eye to make a decision, all of that drama is now lost.”
David Bayliss is describing a scene he saw play out many times as a Wimbledon line judge – and one which the Championships won’t witness again.
Just as with the many other sports that have embraced technology, the All England Club is waving goodbye to human line judges from next summer, after 147 years, in the name of “maximum accuracy”.
But does this risk minimising the drama Mr Bayliss fondly remembers being involved in – and which so many of us love watching?
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“It is sad that we won’t be going back as line judges,” he says. “The game has moved on, but never say never.”
He served as a line judge and umpire at Wimbledon for 22 years,calling the lines when Roger Federer won his first Grand Slam, in 2003. Being hit by the ball at over 100mph is, he jokes, “quite sore”.
While he’s sad to see line judges go, he says it’s hard to argue with the logic.
“Essentially, we have a human being and technology calling the same line. The electronic line call can overrule the human eye. Therefore, why do we need the line judge to make a call at all?”
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Of course, even before Wimbledon’s announcementthis week, technology played a big part at the tournament through Hawk-Eye, the ball-tracking system, and organisers are following the example set by others.
As the BBC’s tennis correspondent Russell Fuller outlined, players will intermittently complain about electronic line calling, but there has been consensus for a while that the technology is now more accurate and consistent than a human.
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Mr Bayliss acknowledges there is a “high degree of trust in the electronic line calling”.
He points out: “The only frustration the player can show is at themselves for not winning the point.”
Whether the tech works is one thing – but whether it’s worth it is another.
Dr Anna Fitzpatrick, who played at Wimbledon between 2007 and 2013, says her “first feeling on hearing the news about the Wimbledon line judges was of sadness”.
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“A human element of sport is one of the things that draws us in,” the lecturer in sports performance and analysis at Loughborough University tells the BBC.
While she recognises technology can improve the performance of athletes, she hopes we always keep it in check.
Of course, tennis is far from alone in its embrace of tech.
Cricket is another sport where it plays a big role and – according to Dr Tom Webb, an expert in the officiating of sport at Coventry University – it has been driven by broadcasters.
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He says that as soon as televised coverage showed sporting moments in a way that an umpire couldn’t see, it led to calls for change in the game.
“I think we need to be careful,” he tells the BBC.
In particular, he says, we need to think carefully about what aspect of human decision-making is automated.
He argues that in football, goal-line technology has been accepted because, like electronic line calls in tennis, it is a measurement – it’s either a goal or it’s not.
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However, many people are frustrated with the video assistant referee (VAR) system, with decisions taking too long and fans in the stadium not being aware of what is happening.
“The issue with VAR is it’s not necessarily relying on how accurate the technology is. It’s still reliant on individual judgment and subjectivity, and how you interpret the laws of the game,” he adds.
Need to evolve
Of course, there is a temptation to think of technology as something new in sport.
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Anything but, according to Prof Steve Haake of Sheffield Hallam University, who says sport has always evolved with the tech of the day, with even the Greeks adapting the sprint race in the ancient Olympics.
“Right back from the very start of sports, it was a spectacle, but we also wanted it to be fair.
“That’s what these technologies are about. That’s the trick that we’ve got to get right.”
Technology is still adding to the spectacle of sport – think of the 360-degree swirling photography used to illustrate the dramatic conclusion to the men’s 100m final at this summer’s Olympics.
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And while it is true that some traditional jobs, like line judges, may be disappearing, tech is also fuelling the creation of other jobs – particularly when it comes to data.
Take the example of sports analysis system Opta, which allows both athletes and fans to have streams of data to measure performance, a process which artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating.
While it might not be the same as a tennis player’s emotional outburst at a line judge, its advocates argue it allows a more intense connection of its own kind, as people are able to learn ever more about the sports and players they love.
And, of course, the frequent controversies over systems like VAR bring plenty of scope for tech to get the heart pumping.
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“People love sport because of the drama,” says Patrick Lucey, chief scientist of Stats Perform, the company behind Opta.
Amazon has just shaved $180 off of the regular price of Beats Studio Pro. This brings them down to just $169.95, which is back to their all-time low, that we last saw during Prime Day in July. This is another October Prime Day sale that Amazon forgot to end, so you’d better grab them before they are gone.
The Beats Studio Pro are pretty impressive headphones and aren’t the bass-heavy headphones you might know from about a decade ago. Instead, these offer great sound at the mids, highs, and, of course, the bass. Apple has also given the Beats Studio Pro a good battery life. We’re looking at 40 hours of battery life here, which is pretty good for a pair of on-ear headphones. But perhaps best of all is USB-C. Making it super easy to charge these up.
Apple sells the Beats Studio Pro in four colors: Black, Deep Brown, Navy, and Sandstone. It’s a bit of a departure from the older Beats headphones, especially since there’s no Beats red here. But the Navy color is really nice looking.
You can pick up the Beats Studio Pro from Best Buy by clicking the link below.
SpaceX’s Starship is set to take off later on its fifth test flight as Elon Musk pushes ahead in his quest to build the most powerful operational rocket system in history.
For the first time SpaceX will attempt to catch the Super Heavy booster, which sits at the bottom of the two-stage vehicle, as it returns to the launchpad in Texas.
Being able to land the booster safely increases its chances of being rapidly reusable, which would reduce the costs of spacefaring.
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It was unclear until Saturday whether the launch would even take place after SpaceX awaited approval from US authorities.
Last month SpaceX publicly accused the US government of threatening “America’s position as the leader in space” because of the time it had taken to review its paperwork on key issues like the environmental impact of the flight.
A fifth flight in just 18 months is an extraordinary feat for the team at SpaceX. The first two flights saw the vehicle blown apart not long before its missions.
However, SpaceX argue this is all part of its development plan – to launch early in the expectation of failure so that it can collect as much data as possible and develop its systems quicker than its rivals.
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Since the last flight in June, SpaceX has said that its engineers have collectively worked for 12,000 hours to replace Starship’s entire heat shield with additional protections. During its last flight, as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, some of the protective tiles on the surface were destroyed as the Ship was enveloped by super-heated, ionised gas.
This time SpaceX is hoping to launch the 121m-tall (397ft) system but rather than having the whole system splashdown in the Indian Ocean like the last flight, they want the Super Heavy to fly back to the launchpad where it can be caught between a pair of giant mechanical arms called the “chopsticks”.
The initial stages of the ascent will be the same as the previous four outings, with the Ship and booster separating two and three-quarter minutes after leaving the ground.
But then the booster will head back towards the launch site at Boca Chica in Texas and it will reignite its engines to slow the vehicle down from supersonic speeds. Sonic booms are expected to be heard in the surrounding area.
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At the launch pad is the world’s tallest rocket tower standing 146m-high (480ft) with two giant robotic arms. These will catch the rocket booster before re-stacking it on the orbital launch mount for its next flight.
Catching the booster rather than getting it to land on the launch pad reduces the need for complex hardware on the ground and will enable rapid redeployment of the vehicle in the future.
If the Flight Director does not think it is possible then a call will be made before the boostback burn – when the rocket turns around – for the booster to land in the Indian Ocean. This will be less than three minutes into the flight.
Elon Musk and SpaceX have grand designs that the rocket system will one day take humanity to Mars, making our species “multi-planetary”.
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The US space agency, Nasa, will be watching the flight attempt closely. It has paid the company $2.8bn (£2.14bn) to develop Starship into a lander capable of returning astronauts to the Moon’s surface by 2026.
In space terms that is not that far away so Elon Musk’s team have been eager to get the rocket re-launched as soon as possible.
But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) , the US government body that must approve the flight, had previously said there would be no launch before November as it reviewed the company’s permits.
Since last month the agency and Elon Musk have been in a public spat after the FAA said it was seeking to fine his company, SpaceX, $633,000 for allegedly failing to follow its license conditions and not getting permits for previous flights.
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Before issuing a license the FAA reviews the impact of the flight, in particular the effect on the environment.
In response to the fine Musk threatened to sue the agency and SpaceX put out a public blog post hitting back against “false reporting” that part of the rocket was polluting the environment.
Currently the FAA only considers the impact on the immediate environment from rocket launches rather than the wider impacts of the emissions.
Dr Eloise Marais, professor of atmospheric chemistry and air quality at University College London, said the carbon emissions from rockets pale in comparison to other forms of transport but there are other planet-warming pollutants which are not being considered.
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“The black carbon is one of the biggest concerns. The Starship rockets are using liquid methane. It’s a relatively new propellant, and we don’t have very good data of the amount of emissions that are coming from liquid methane,” she said.
Dr Marais said what makes black carbon from rockets so concerning is that they release it hundreds of miles higher into the atmosphere than planes.
“They’re putting pollutants in layers of the atmosphere where they stay for two and a half, or three years, compared to pollutants close to the surface of the earth that go away after about a few days to a week. So the longer that they stay in the atmosphere, the bigger the impact they have,” she said.
In April, Nasa released its first space sustainability strategy in which it said “the chemicals used during launch raise concerns about atmospheric impacts”. It did not lay out specific solutions but committed to work with its climate team on this issue.
FIFA didn’t exactly get out of the video game business after . Soccer’s governing body has teamed up with Konami to host two editions of the FIFAe World Cup on the console and mobile versions of later this year.
Qualifying for both tournaments starts today, with FIFAe world champs (one each on mobile and console) to be crowned later this year. Eighteen FIFA member associations are taking part, namely those in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, England, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand and Türkiye. They were selected based on previous performances of esports competitors from those countries as well as the eFootball player base in each.
FIFA is bringing eFootball into its esports fold alongside Rocket League (car soccer) and Football Manager (soccer management). It’s too early to tell whether Konami’s title will become FIFA’s official licensed partner for major soccer games and adopt the governing body’s name. Still, it seems clear that FIFA and Konami are on positive terms and this could be a step toward a larger partnership. Hey, both even use that silly “e” branding.
While EA Sports FC is far and away the most popular soccer sim series around, eFootball is the closest thing it has to a true competitor. It had a peak concurrent Steam player count of 17,610 over the last 24 hours, compared with 98,400 for EA Sports FC 25.
The FBI created a cryptocurrency company and crypto token as a bait for scammers who participate in ‘pump-and-dump’ schemes, new reports have revealed.
The tactic, which involve making fake trades to boost prices before cashing out, worked very well, with 18 people arrested for ‘widespread fraud and manipulation in the crypto currency markets’, marking the first ever set of criminal charges brought against financial service firms for ‘wash trading’ and market manipulation in the cryptocurrency industry.
Over $25 million in cryptocurrency was seized during the operation, along with trading bots responsible for millions of dollars worth of ‘wash trades’ for around 60 different cryptocurrencies, which have been deactivated.
‘Operation Token Mirrors’
The cryptocurrency the FBI created was an Ethereum-based instrument named NexFundAI, which they used to track unsuspecting traders.
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‘Wash trades’ refers to the illegal process of buying and selling the same security as a form of market manipulation. Recent reports suggest that as much as 70% of all crypto currency transactions fall under this category, so it’s no wonder police want to crack down.
“These are cases where an innovative technology – cryptocurrency – met a century old scheme – the pump and dump. The message today is, if you make false statements to trick investors, that’s fraud. Period.” stated Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levy.
“These charges are also a stark reminder of how vigilant online investors must be and that doing your homework before diving into the digital frontier is critical. People considering making investments in the cryptocurrency industry should understand how these scams work so that they can protect themselves.” he adds.
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Also charged by the Security and Exchange Commission were three ‘market makers’, which refers to individuals who engage in two-sided markets of a security.
There’s been a flurry of bad news stories for crypto investors recently, with crypto-linked cybercrime seeing a record year, with stolen funds inflows doubling to around $1.58billion in 2024.
The Oura Ring is a highly sought-after wearable device available in different styles and price ranges. In fact, Oura just announced its latest model, the Oura Ring 4. It allows users to track their sleep and recovery, stress levels, illnesses, and fitness routines — and it even provides features specific to women’s health. With so many features, you might wonder whether this smart ring is waterproof. Let’s find out.
Technically, the Oura Ring is not waterproof, which is the case for most modern gadgets. Instead, it’s water-resistant up to 330 feet (100 meters). You’ll often find water resistance protection on products, which is good, but it’s not exactly the same as being waterproof. But what does that really mean? We explain below.
The Oura Ring has a certain level of protection that allows you to wear it while swimming, showering, and snorkeling. However, wearing the Oura Ring during scuba diving or when there is a risk of extended water submersion or extreme pressure is not advisable. Oura recommends avoiding wearing the ring in such scenarios to ensure its longevity and proper functioning.
Oura further explains: “The Oura Ring operating temperature ranges from [-10 to 52 degrees Celsius and 14 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit]. You can safely wear your ring in the shower, hot tubs, saunas, ice baths, and cryotherapy tanks. However, extended exposure to extreme temperatures (below 0°C/32°F or above 35°C/95°F) may lead to battery damage.”
Of Oura’s chief competitors, only the Ultrahuman Ring Air provides similar water resistance. The Oura Ring offers the same level of protection as the Apple Watch Ultra, making it an excellent alternative to smartwatches. However, it surpasses the Apple Watch Series 2 or later and the Google Pixel Watch 3, which can only resist water up to 50 meters. The Samsung Galaxy Ring also stands out as a competitor with its waterproofing, though it’s not up to the same standard as the Oura Ring.
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The Oura Ring 4 costs $349 or more depending on the finish you choose. Preorders are available on the official website and will ship on launch day, October 15. You can also buy older Oura Ring models at Best Buy and Amazon. The Gen 3 ring is available in two primary styles (Heritage and Horizon) and is available in a number of finishes, including silver, black, stealth, gold, rose gold, and, most recently, titanium.
OPPO could be developing its own smart ring, as a new patent surfaced
A new patent by the company has been spotted over at the CNIPA website. The device detailed in that patent comes with a detachable holder. The sketches are available in the gallery below.
You can clearly see that there are several different components listed here. The ring itself is one, a ring holder another, and then there’s the integrated electronic component, of course.
What’s interesting here is that the ring holder contains the electronic component of the ring, which should allow the device itself to be considerably thinner than other smart rings.
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OPPO could end up offering different ring holders
This is an interesting approach, and it may even allow OPPO to attach different ring holders to the device, allowing different functionality in the process. This could appeal to a wide range of people. Needless to say, it would also allow you to change the style of the watch.
Do note that this is just a patent at the moment, though. It could never even come to fruition, or OPPO could use some other approach for its smart ring. Chances are that we’ll see a smart ring from the company in the future, though.
HONOR’s smart ring is coming, while Apple cancelled its own
HONOR promised to deliver a smart ring this year, and we expected to see it at IFA 2024, at the latest. That did not happen, however, so we’ll just have to wait and see what will happen with it.
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Based on a trusted source, Apple abandoned its smart ring project, mainly because its functionality makes them compete directly with smartwatches.
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