I've been silent on the whole SB thing. Especially since I am a diehard Seahawks fan. Since I am an engineer in real-life, and a football official in my spare time, I do think I can comment on the item below.
Quote:
Originally posted by OverAndBack
Where are you going to put the chip? In the middle of the ball? What if only the tip of the ball hits the goal line (which is all it has to do)? Is the chip going to know that?
You could, I suppose, bury a wire of some sort all along the inward edge of the goal line, extending all the way across the field, the problem is what would "trip" the signal.
Would you have to put a chip in each point of the ball and one in the middle just to be reasonably sure that it would trip the signal?[/B]
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I have 2 points: a) I don't think a chip will be used, and b) I think they could make such a thing work.
I don't think a chip will be used because it removes the human element. I like the way the NFL handles officiating "errors." The way the NCAA does it is too arbitrary. I like giving the teams a say in what should/should not be challenged. And because of that, I think human observation will continue long into the future. Making machines decide the outcome of the game--no matter how fair--makes the game less interesting. And I bet you the union representing the officials will raise holy hell over this issue (re: MLB umpires).
As for the technology, I think it is quite possible to embed something in the ball that would trigger when the GL is crossed. It doesn't need to be a chip, but a wire that goes lengthwise and widthwise on the ball. RFID technology is already quite advanced, and an RFID chip with "antennas" attached could easily detect when the ball crosses the plain. So you don't need to worry about the chip "tripping" the wire in the GL since the "antennas" would cover all possible outside edges of the ball.
But I think the discussion over this is moot because of the desire to keep things human.