HOTSPOT TECHNOLOGY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This seminar would not have been a success, had it not been without several people who have directly and indirectly helped me. I am extremely indebted to all of them and whole heartedly thank everyone for their valuable support. I am extremely grateful to Fr.Wilson Thattaruthundil, our Bursar and Dr.T.M.George, our Principal for providing me with good facilities and a proper environment for conducting my seminars. I thank Mr.Biju B Varghese, Head of the Department, Information Technology .I am highly obliged to Mrs.Asha S & Mr. Vishnukumar S, for the valuable suggestion, appraisal and guidance. I also thank all other teaching and non-teaching staff for their co-operation and support throughout.
I also thank several of our seniors and all my friends for helping me out at various stages of my work. I truly admire my parents for their constant encouragement and enduring support which was inevitable for the success of my ventures and completion of this work. Above all, I thank God Almighty for the ever abiding kind blessings.
ABSTRACT
Hot spot technology is an infra-red imaging system which is most popularly used in sports especially in cricket to determine whether the ball has actually struck the player or his equipments or even the ground. Hot spot was actually a technology developed in the military for tank and jet fighter detection. It was widely used in war prone areas for tracking of various military equipments. The device, known as ‘hotspot’, could show whether a batsman was out or not with 100% accuracy. It is a scientifically proven piece of technology that will end all speculation surrounding a dismissal.
Hotspot technology uses two infra-red cameras which are positioned at either end of ground above the field of play that are continuously recording an image that show the miniscule amount of heat generated from friction when two objects collide. On any snick or bat pad event occurring the infra-red camera sends images to the computer which then turns it into a negative image showing us the outcome of the recent incident. This negative image is produced a technique known as subtraction technique. The image shows a hot spot on the area where there is collision giving us an accurate conclusion on the decision.
Hotspot technology is also used in games like snooker and tennis. The main drawbacks in using this technique are the cost of implementing this technique in high. Also it affects the game speed.
This technology is now being used on trial basis in cricket and it is proving to be successful. It is already of tennis and snooker. Also it is having a number of uses in military as well.
INTRODUCTION
Hot Spot is an infra-red imaging system used in sports to determine whether the ball has actually struck the player, its equipments or the ground. Hot Spot was actually a technology developed in the military for tank and jet fighter tracking. It was widely used in war prone areas for the tracking of various military equipments.
The technology was adapted for television by BBG Sports, the Australian company responsible for the Snickometer, in conjunction with Sports. The technology was first used by the Australian Nine Network during the first Test match of the 2006-07 Ashes at The Gabba, on 23 November2006.
The ICC has announced that Hot Spot images will be available for use as part of its ongoing technology trial during the second and third Tests (March 2009) in South Africa. The system will be available to the third umpire in the event of a player referral. The Hot Spot technology was in fact founded by French scientist Nicholas Bion, before being worked upon by a many different companies in Paris and been bought and adopted by the Nine Network Australia. The technological drive for smaller devices using less power with greater functionality has created new potential applications in the sensor and data acquisition sectors.
The image shows us any heat been produced in the field of play, giving us a 100% accurate conclusion on the decision. The main aim of this technology is to successfully make a decision on whether the batsman is dismissed or granted ‘not out’, whether the ball hit the bat, pad or glove and if it hit something at all.
LITERATURE SURVEY
Thermographic cameras have become all the rage lately in the world of cricket. When properly used, these can reduce the room for error with LBW or out-caught/caught-behind decisions and can accurately determine whether the ball had made contact with the batsman's bat, pad, glove or any other part of the body.
Of course, the expense of setting up the two-camera solution at each match is very high (a thermographic camera goes for roughly $30,000). The technology has been made available to the third umpire as part of the referral system on several occasions but the use of this technology is by no means mandatory. Several current and former players are in favor of making it mandatory. Michael Vaughan recently was quoted on BBC Sport as saying: "the ICC should pay for the Snicko and Hotspot at every Test match venue."
TV audiences enjoy the application of this technology giving the broadcaster another avenue for advertising. In fact, spectators voted it the best piece of technology in cricket in a Cricket Australia poll in 2007. BBG's Hotspot thermographic technology got 54 per cent of the vote followed by extreme slow-motion (22 per cent), Hawk-Eye (14 per cent), Snickometer (6 per cent) and 3-tracker (5 per cent).
First invented by Nicholas Bion of France, the technology is now used for wide-ranging applications including security and defense. Nine Network of Australia adopted it for cricket and the technology is now offered by the Australian company BBG Sports. First used in 2006-07 Ashes Test match at the Gabba in November of 2006, cricket constitutes the first sporting application currently for this technology. It is considered more accurate than the Snickometer, which relies on sound.
This technology can be used to finds
i) The correct LBW decision, so that any edge from the bat can be easily detected with the help of this technology.
ii) When it comes to any keeper catch even the slight edge or nick can also be detected with the help of this technology.
In recent years of cricket one of the major problem in cricket is the umpire's decision and if this umpire's decision goes wrong in the case of any main batsman who is crucial for the team to win the match. This has happened many times and that too these LBW decisions.
Well this Hotspot technology is most often used in two important cases,
i) Caught behind- Did the batsman Nick the ball?
Well, the image below is good enough to explain the given situation. Well when we consider this in ordinary images or videos, we might feel that the batsman must have nick it and with the deviation produced, the umpire would have given out and as a result of that the batsman would be the unluckiest man.
But with the use of this technology we can help the batsman in knowing the truth that the ball had stuck the pad and not the bat, with the help of the white spot which is produced on the pad.
Another issue which can be discussed from the image from the viewers point is that the question of LBW, if the umpire had the idea of giving him LBW. And any cricket fan can easily guess with the help of this hot spot that the ball misses the off stump. And so this technology of hotspot made the job of umpire easier and in fact in future this can also be a danger for umpire, as they can replace them, which results in losing their job.
ii) LBW - inside edge or not?
The above image is a evidence to prove that a batsman is out LBW or not. The image is clear enough that the batsman didn't have any inside image as there is no white spot in the bat, rather the white spot is found in the pads and it is very clear that the batsman is out LBW.
But this is given out most of the time LBW and the confusion arises when the umpires gives any batsman out LBW without knowing that, there was an inside edge. So all these controversies can be overcome with the help of these hotspot technologies
Umpires vs Hotspot
Most often, the biggest mistake that the umpire commit is in these LBW decisions and that too many batsmen where given out LBW, in spite of the inside edge and we should not blame umpires for this, because they are also humans "to err is human".........
So the main purpose why this technology was invented is to find whether the batsman has edge it or the ball has struck directly on the pad. This determination is enough to find whether a batsman is out or not, in the case of caught behind and LBW decision.
Well the introduction of this technology is not an ordinary step, because earlier this technology was used in the military to by the tanks and also by the jets so that they could trace any of their enemies, and these was used particularly in countries like Australia.
Those who watch cricket regularly might have known which country started using this technology first. It is Australia and we might have seen these technology were used during the Ashes when England team travelled Australia and also during the Indian matches that were played in Australia.
But now this technology is used in every country and it was also accepted as the best technology as it gives the accurate decision, which was not in the case of Hawk Eye, which was used for LBW decision, and that too the hotspot technology used for finding caught behind, in the case of any slight edge, and in the LBW decision, whether to find the ball has struck directly on the pad of it has any inside edge, are very accurate.
This technology was first used in the 2006-2007 Ashes series on 23rd November 2006 at the Gabba, Brisbane cricket stadium by the Australian Nine network. Moreover this technology was first adapted for television by the BBG Sports, which is an Australian company who earlier introduced the technology called Snickometer, in conjunction with Sky Sports.
Know their technology -How Hot Spot is used?
When it comes to this technology we need the following requirements to ensure this technology is available
i) The TV broadcasting channel who is involved in the Live telecasting of the matches, uses many cameras in the ground so that they could get the different angles. They must also spend money to use two infra red cameras on the ground.
ii) These two infra red cameras are used at the either side of the ground, i.e. where they have the side screen, so that they could clearly have the view of the batsmen when he faces the ball. The reason why we need to use 2 cameras at the either side is that in cricket, after every over it is the keeper who changes the side and so after each over the bowler will bowl from different end.
After installing the cameras, the hot spot images can be used whenever any controversial decision was made and we can get the accurate decision with the help of these hot spot images and especially for the LBW and when the batsman snick the ball. Well, the working of this technology can be very easily understood. Whenever the batsmen is in contact with the ball, then the IR cameras which are set on the either side of the ground will send these images to the computer and in the next process all these images are converted into a negative image.
Now the IR cameras which are fixed on the either side has a great function, because they have the capability to sense and measure any heat produced due to the friction generated by a collision, which includes
i)Meeting of the ball to the bat
ii)When the ball strikes the pad or any other parts of the body.
So when these images are processed into negative images and in case if the ball has struck the pad, the we can see a white spot in those images, which are resulted due to the heat produced when the pad and ball meets.