Capturing the Game: How iPhones Are Redefining Offside Calls in the Premier League

In a time when tech and sport are colliding more inventively than ever, the English Premier League (EPL) is setting a bold new standard. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system has become something of a dirty word after its controversial introduction into soccer. But in the 2022-23 season, a new ‘Dragon’ system is to be used that involves plugging-in banks of iPhones to decide if players are offside. The move demonstrates how simple everyday tech can help officiating in sport, and potentially how offside can be decided in the future.

The Dragon System Unveiled

At the centre of this change sits Dragon, a system that uses 28 iPhones stationed all around a stadium to track players. Not just any phones, though. These are modified devices, each tucked inside a custom waterproof case with cooling fans and a separate power supply, which capture high-frame-rate video from various angles. This data is fed into an artificial intelligence algorithm that tracks thousands of data points on players’ bodies in real time. This kind of real-time visual data collection – some of it filmed at 60 frames per second, with 50 or 60 cameras filming 7,000-10,000 points on a player – could be much more accurate than anything that has come before in determining whether a rule has been flouted or not.

Navigating Beyond the Boundaries of Traditional VAR

The main advantage of the switch to iPhones from VAR cameras is that these can record up to 200 frames per second, in comparison with the 50 to 60 frames of the traditional systems. With such a high frame rate, officials can observe the decisive moments in much greater detail than before, ensuring that each whistle and offside call is made with precision.

Further flexibility of using additional cameras is also possible in the iPhone-based arrangement, and can be dynamically adjusted according to the needs of each match and stadium configuration. Such additional cameras reduce the required number of paddles, improve operational efficiency and reduce the system cost. In practice, we have observed that mobile technology such as iPhones can be a viable platform for sports analytics.

Referees: The Ultimate Decision-Makers

But even with the increasingly technological successes of the Dragon system, a certain emotional human element can never really be replaced. The tools are designed to support referees with their analysis of player movement and positioning, and to give them greater information about player interactions – but the final call remains with those on the field. The referee is not a technician, but a sportsman, using technology to support them in their role.

Looking Ahead: The Future with Dragon

And as the 2013-14 Premier League season promises to debut the Dragon system any day now, the next revolutionary step in raising the standard of sports officiating – and perhaps in sports themselves – might just be on the horizon. The move by the Premier League to place iPhone cameras literally into the game represents a watershed moment in the emergence of technology in sport, and a trailblazing precedent for the future.

The Role of CAMERAS in Transforming Sports Officiating

From video replays to VAR, and now iPhones, cameras have played a central role in how sport is watched, interpreted and adjudicated. And they have been getting better all the time. With enough resolution and frame rate, we can bring a camera closer and closer to the action. When combined with AI, the new systems can deliver better, more accurate offside calls than any human referee ever could. More and more cameras produce better perceptions, and ultimately better adjudications, too.

In short, the Premier League’s move to replace VAR with a Dragon system that runs on mobile phones could give rise to an exciting new paradigm for sport officiating worldwide – a powerful fusion of mobile phone technology and the living, breathing spirit of the game. For at the end of the day, the true potential of the camera isn’t diminution of the human – it’s intensification of the human, and the more we learn how to welcome automation, the more space we create for ourselves to enjoy watching the only game in town.