Q&A with Geoff Allardice on the Loughborough technology trial
Q – How you exactly need to look at the data and ascertain from this session?
Geoff Allardice - The engineers from the MIT have developed this swinging arm system and instrumenting the bat so that we know when very fine contact with the bat is made. What we are checking is how well the technology that used in cricket matches, matches up with what their testing system shows. If it matches up to a point where it is very consistent, then we think it is going to be useable as an officiating technology in an international cricket match.
Q – The way it is working today is you have guys from the MIT who are providing you with this swinging arm, which is generating the faintest edges, and then the guys from Hawk-Eye are making sure that the sound they get from their stump-mic marries to up the exact moment when the ball passes the bat. Is that right?
Geoff Allardice - That’s right. It is the timing of the sound and how the sound is represented visually. In end, the third umpire would be looking at the images on the screen and if the sound is represented in a visual way that the third umpire can interpret consistently, then it is going to be useable as an officiating tool.
This is the start of a project where we will be looking to of test all of our DRS technologies. This includes ball-tracking and edge-detection tools. This is the first of a number of testing sessions that we will conduct over the next several months to try to understand the performance of the DRS.
Q – How important it is to have MIT involved in this testing?
Geoff Allardice – The engineers from the MIT come with a scientific background. One of the difficulties with edge-detection is to produce fine edge. To run a testing session, you need to be able to generate these very fine edges on a frequent edges. And this is what the swinging arm is able to do, just make very fine contact of ball on bat and give plenty of data samples for us to work with and to be able to assess the performance of the technology.
It was good to have the engineers from the MIT involved because they bring a fresh set of eyes to the problem, have developed the testing apparatus and also the instrumentation of the bat so that we know that when contact is made with the bat, that it is detected and registered and, then we can compare it to any technologies that are used as part of the DRS and incorporate in the broadcast of international cricket.
Q – How important it is to have an independent testing system in place?
Geoff Allardice - I think for a number of reasons. Just one is the fresh set of eyes to have a look at the problem, look at creative ways of producing the sort of results we are after to understand performance of these system. But also that they are not linked to any particular cricketing country or broadcaster or technology provider. They come in fresh, produce their apparatus and then they we going to be using their apparatus to test against the technologies that are used today.
Their independence is a big factor and we have some very smart engineers working on this project and if we are able to get the results we are after, then hopefully it gives all people involved in cricket greater confidence in the DRS system.