A microwave based tracking system for soccer

To enable real time localisation and tracking of balls and players the "Cairos" system has been designed and set-up by Fraunhofer IIS, Erlangen, Germany on behalf of the Cairos technologies AG, Munich, Germany. System tests are currently being performed in Nuremberg's " Frankenstadion", a stadium taking part in the FIFA world cup 2006. The position is determined by hyperbolic triangulation based on signal delay differences between transmitters and receivers, which are installed within the stadium on exactly defined coordinates. The objects to be localized are miniaturized transmitters mounted inside the balls or attached to the shin pads of the players. The carefully chosen dimensioning of the system results in an accuracy within the cm range over the regional observation area of the soccer field while also allowing to resolve high speed movements of the ball. The core of the miniature transmitters consists of a two-chip ASIC solution, which sends up to 2000 brief code sequences per second in the ISM band at 2.4 GHz. For a sufficient monitoring of the pitch up to twelve receivers per system have to be placed in various heights above ground. These synchronized receivers pick up the bursts and process them in order to obtain time-of-arrival-values. These are then handled by a computing cluster to derive position data streams with an update rate of that of the burst rate. The system can handle up to 150 transmitters on the field. This locating system offers worldwide the first possibility to analyse all matches and players objectively with the same evaluation basis. To offer the public more attraction during the match, a lot of information from the running speed of a player to the length of a pass can be provided automatically. Soon, transmissions of soccer matches on TV can be enriched with a lot of information. This way, there is a new possibility for media companies to make the game more attractive and to awake a higher interest among the audience. Applications in