Smart balls, e-commentators, race for the wonder shoe

Innovations in soccer Smart balls, e-commentators, race for the wonder shoe

2024-06-18 Source: DPMA | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

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Redesigned for the European Football Championship and extended by many current inventions: In the online gallery "Football and Technology", the German Patent and Trademark Office shows how technical innovations shape football—and gives an outlook on some things that may still come.

On the occasion of the European Championship, the DPMA has dealt with the technology behind football and presents significant developments.(Image: freely licensed. / Pixabay) — On the occasion of the European Championship, the DPMA has dealt with the technology behind football and presents significant developments.
(Image: freely licensed. / Pixabay)

Smart balls, video assistants, and artificial intelligence: In modern football, electronic aids are playing an increasingly important role. However, technical innovations have always been part of the world's most popular sport. Since its invention, creative minds have been working on solutions to make players better, equipment more precisely fitting, and football games more attractive for the audience. Under the motto "The ball stays round - how innovations shape football," the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) displays patent documents from around the world and comments on and explains inventions related to all aspects of the game. On the occasion of the European Championship in Germany, the gallery was redesigned and expanded to include many current inventions.

From the first balls and screw-in stud shoes to goal setting all the way to video evidence and AI-supported analysis methods: Our gallery tells the tech history of football. And it gives a preview of what might still come. At the same time, the gallery illustrates that the protection of innovations has always been a means in football to best exploit economic opportunities.

DPMA-President Eva Schewior

Here are a few examples from the gallery

Gallery

At the beginning of football, the rubber filler tube, a closure plug or the valve was jammed, laced or pressed under leather tabs of different shapes in an opening slit of the ball cover. From the outside, nothing of these could be seen. Special tools in fork or spoon shape were also necessary for storing the bladder in the cover, for lacing or unlacing, as shown in DE-PS 352 705, DE-PS 362 019, DE-PS 490 946 (in the picture), DE-PS 494 393 and DE-PS 607 453.(Image: DPMA)

The ball cover is the most stressed component of the ball. It should be as abrasion-resistant, shape-retaining, and evenly round as possible. It should always have the same playing characteristics under the most varied playing and weather conditions. This wide range of demands particularly spurred on the inventors. The picture shows the production of a football cover according to US 5 772 545 A1.(Image: DPMA)

Training and match situations are often very differently assessed by people. That's why there is an attempt to provide the referee or coach with an additional tool to more accurately assess the behaviour of a player on the ball (e.g. his shot strength) and the behaviour of the ball in play (e.g. its position on the field). These developments can be summarized under the general term "smart ball". The image shows the tetrahedron suspension for sensors.(Image: DPMA)

Ordinary field boundaries on grass pitches have to be constantly retraced with the chalk wagon. This is because the grass is regularly mowed and because the applied marking is affected by the weather. Although it is also possible to pre-work with a stencil (DE 10 2008 019 514 A1, in the picture), for example, if there are hardly any reference points for the correct line geometries on the field. Despite this, the final line appearance of the field depends only on the skill of the chalk wagon operator.(Image: DPMA)

Gallery with 8 images

AI in football

Balls, goals, shoes, rule monitoring—the gallery is divided into various chapters. Inventors are particularly active in the collection and analysis of biometric data to improve performance. Every movement, every body part is to be monitored with sensors—housed in shin guards or a hip belt, for example - in order to develop improvement suggestions and optimize training later. Some of these inventions also aim to translate professional soccer into computer games as accurately as possible using electronic data. Artificial intelligence is also becoming increasingly prevalent in soccer, whether it be for processing player data or observing and evaluating a game for the audience.

What else can be done in lawn care

There's also a lot going on on the playing field. Many recent developments are concerned with lawn care: drones could perform watering from the air, self-learning systems could derive maintenance measures from environmental data. However, many stadiums around the world no longer play on pure natural grass, but on so-called hybrid grass. It is supposed to combine the robust characteristics of artificial grass with the good playing properties of the natural subsoil. When it comes to shoes, manufacturers seem to be in a never-ending race for optimum grip and best wearing comfort.

Zur Galerie "Fußball und Technik" des DPMA.

Smart balls

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