The World Is a Ball: German team innovates in football with camera on players’ uniforms

Anyone who sees the footage may think it’s a video game, one of those modern ones, because that’s the feeling you get, due to the resolution offered.

There is something artificial. It just isn’t. What is shown is very real, it is a real football game.

In addition, it can be said that the spectator has never been so close to each shot. The feeling is like he’s on the field.

In a pre-season friendly against Milan, Cologne, Germany’s first division club, tested an innovative technology in terms of the vision of the game: a camera placed on the athletes’ uniforms.

Two of them, defender Timo Hübers, 26, and midfielder Tim Lemperle, 20, were chosen to wear camera vests produced by Tel Aviv’s MindFly, which defines them as “100% wearable, 100% invisible, 100 % safe”.

Eran Tal, CEO of the Israeli company, stated that “our AI vests [inteligência artificial] are designed for the player to maintain their performance and feel the same as with a GPS vest. After a few minutes, he forgets he’s wearing it. [o utensílio]”.

An integral part of football for some time, the GPS vest, the one that resembles a bra, serves to record data such as speed and distance covered by the athlete.

With the “bodycam”, German players were able to offer unique angles, whether the ball was moving or not, in the match. The technology also makes it possible to capture sounds, that is, what is heard in the field can be transmitted.

Hübers “filmed” Milan’s first goal up close, from center forward Giroud. The defender was the closest Colônia player to the opponent. Badly positioned, all he could do was watch the Frenchman dribble past goalkeeper Schwäbe and almost enter with the ball and all.

The second goal of the Italian team, again by Giroud, still in the first half, also had the different record of the “bodycam” of the beque.

In the second half, it was the turn of Lemperle, who had come on after the break, to act as “cameraman”. He recorded a goal, that of his team, which would lose the friendly on Saturday (16) by 2 to 1.

In a corner, the midfielder was at the entrance of Milan’s area, in a central position, and offered the spectator his look at the move, with the header on the post by Arrey-Mbi and the subsequent submission by Dietz.

Lemperle cheered, as his bodycam shows, clapping his hands three times. A detail that would never be seen with the use of conventional cameras.

Experience finished, the questions remain.

Is the technology innovative? Yup. Will it be used again? Possibly due to the positive repercussion. Will it expand to other clubs and be used in official matches? It’s too early to say.

The report made contact with FIFA (soccer’s top entity), in order to comment on the use of the “first person” camera, but there was no response.

who supplied the Sheet information, even if succinctly and without mentioning the cost of the project, was Colônia, through Lil Zercher, the club’s communications advisor.

“For now this has been a one-time event, but of course we will evaluate any innovations around the game that are useful and have a positive impact on the viewer experience.”

In the friendly at the RheinEnergie stadium, which was called by the Cologne the “Innovation Game”, in addition to the cameras on the players, there were other technological actions, such as a system that informed in real time which bathroom or cafeteria had the shortest line and the offer of the super-fast 5G internet to fans present at the arena.