“Developed by self-confessed cricket nut Dr Paul Hawkins in collaboration with contract research and development outfit Roke Manor Research, Hawk-Eye uses vision processing technology to track the progress of a cricket ball as it is released from the bowler’s fingers and travels towards the batsman. Three high-speed cameras placed around the ground take around 450 images of the ball in flight. These are processed into a 3D graphical track of the ball, in an action that takes about 1.5 seconds. “Hawk-Eye can track the flight of a ball and position it to within a tolerance of 5mm anywhere on the field,” says Hawkins.

Designed principally as a tool to explain and aid lbw decisions, Hawk-Eye’s graphical representations have become a crucial part of the commentator’s arsenal. “Hawk-Eye can show where the ball was pitched, how the line deviated, whether the bowler put any swing on the ball, how high it bounced and what speed it was travelling at, as well as predicting if it would have hit the wicket in any lbw decision,” says Hawkins.”

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