Sony Purchase Hawk-Eye Technology Firm

Kovacs 25 Comments

Reported in Australia’s Sunday Morning Herald, Sony have purchased renowned ball-tracking firm, Hawk-Eye. You’ll know the technology from its use in deciding close-calls in tennis, or basically the main reason why John McEnroe hates robots just as much as he despises humans.

Hawk-Eye is also used in snooker (to catch the precise moment Peter Ebdon loses the plot and looks like he’s about to panel a member of the audience), while FIFA are also looking into the technology as a possible way of dragging football out of the 17th century.

Hawk-Eye’s inventor, Paul Hawkin, believes the takeover will create “immense opportunities for the sports industry.” Whether or not Sony’s acquisition has any gaming ramifications remains to be seen.

Source: SMH

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25 Comments

  1. *Insert joke about World Cup and England here*

    • *Insert dry, but ultimately bitter laugh here*

      • *Insert a trolling comment dismissing the sport here*

      • *insert comment on how all sport is dull and Kylie is much better*

      • USA USA USA

        *repeats

      • *Insert entirely irrelevant comment that isn’t even that funny*

      • *insert comment that does not understand joke and takes it completely seriously*

      • *insert coin to play*

      • *insert incredibly witty pun about the ‘goal’ england ‘made’*

    • *insert stop hijacking this thread comment!*
      ;)

      • *insert inane comment just so I can jump on the bandwagon*

        Seriously guys, this stopped being funny after about 2 replies.

  2. Cool, so the next Move Controller features a Tennis ball instead of the glowings squishy-orb thingy?

    • No the next Move Controlloer is actually shaped like a tennis racquet and comes with a seperate orb. Oh wait…

      • haha very good!

        as its sony, i would say its going to be used in something to do with showing 3D in live sports telecasts… maybe use it to track the ball and up the 3D effects using the data

  3. Any idea what division of Sony? I doubt it would have been Sony Computer Entertainment. This seem purely a great business decision.

    • The original article just says “Sony.”

      Could be Sony’s convective microwave division for all we know.

      • Wouldn’t be a surprise if is was something to do with microwaves..lol.

        Seriously though. Maybe the tech will be used in some sort of image stabilization in cameras.

  4. Seems a sensible purchase. It is likely to be THE technology for line calls in sport in the future and Sony have the clout to develop and market it well. More profits for them. That’s good cos they are struggling at the moment

  5. I’m imagining playing tennis with a racquet and ball in my lounge and completely destroying my better half’s romcom DVD collection. Wow, could the PS3 really do this?

  6. Lol at the insert here jokes.

  7. i can only assume that Sony have bought hawkeye to try and develop the technology they already have so that it meets FIFA’s ridiculous criteria for goalline technology. if they manage to meet those criteria it could earn Sony a lot of money plus the sports its already used in will keep the money rolling in.

  8. I like the optimistic way in which this is even reported :D

  9. What about Cricket? You didn’t mention Cricket! How dare you forget my beloved Cricket? Hawkeye is surely most famously used in Cricket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Agreed, and frankly I didn’t even know they used it in Snooker.

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