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How Does ESPN's Magic Baseball Ball Tracking Work?

Posted July 16, 2009 2:16 PM

From Gizmodo:

Did you watch the Home Run derby the other night? I didn't. But if I had, I would have wondered: How did they manage to show those cool balls' trails in real time? The mechanism involves a complicated math algorithm that tracks and predicts the ball's trajectory in real time, only 400 milliseconds after being hit. To get the data needed for the calculation, ESPN uses a 2000Hz Doppler radar which follows the ball's speed, location and spin, given precise data of distance travelled, something that before took seconds or even minutes to calculate. After calculation, the path is shown overlaid on screen in real time, chasing the ball precisely. The results are quite cool, even while they fail (again) at making baseball exciting to me.

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#1

Re: How Does ESPN's Magic Baseball Ball Tracking Work?

07/17/2009 12:18 AM

Yes, very cool, especially with the change in color as it clears the fence. I wondered how they could show every wobble and spin of the ball, which was crystal clear in HD on my 42" lcd tv.

loved it.

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#2

Re: How Does ESPN's Magic Baseball Ball Tracking Work?

07/17/2009 7:16 AM

They've been doing this type of thing with tracking the puck at the All Star Hockey games far years. Baseballs travel slower than pucks don't they?

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#3

Re: How Does ESPN's Magic Baseball Ball Tracking Work?

07/18/2009 9:16 AM

Yeah, and the military is still trying to perfect it's version for incoming ordinance.

ho hum...zzzzz

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