ANI, London, May 6: An inexpensive computer vision system has been developed that can judge whether a batsman has been "run out" or not without the need for the time consuming video replay.
Tariq Mahmood of the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in Karachi has created a system called A-Eye to automate decisions in cricket such as a run out.
A-Eye combines a low-cost video camera sitting at ground level with open-source software called AForge.NET that scans a video feed for moving objects.
A-Eye automatically identifies the position of the crease and the wicket, and tracks the motion of the bat. If the system detects any movement of the wicket while the bat is outside the crease, it deems the batsman to be run out.
Mahmood tested the system on a series of video clips, two-thirds of which showed the batsman being run out.
A-Eye proved to be three per cent less accurate than a human umpire.
But whereas the video umpire took about a minute to decide, A-Eye produced its judgements in less than a second.
The system was due to be presented at the International Conference on Information Science and Applications on Jeju Island, South Korea, this week.
