For about 12 years now, we’ve gotten used to watching the virtual yellow line, which of course signifies where on the field the first down is. It’s one of the things that people who go to the game really miss. If our world came up with the virtual technology, can’t it come up with a real line on the field that the players won’t trip over? Inventor Alan Amron has been working on a solution for the better part of this decade. He has four patents for his First Down Laser System, which shoots a six-inch wide green laser beam across the field that can be seen on both television and in the stadium, and has partnered with veteran player and announcer Pat Summerall. “We estimate that the referees measure for a first down at least once per game, which is at the very least a minute and half,” Amron said. “We looked at how much that was worth from preseason through the Super Bowl in advertising time and we came up with $325 million.” - Said Amron: “How many times do we see players that don’t even know where it is when trying to get a first down?” Source: cnbc
What happens when a player is tackled right next to the thing and gets an eyeful of laser? I'm just sayin'...
so does it shoot it from on flag to the other across the field? then we are assuming they are both at precisely the same spot on the field...though we leave a lot to assumption with the refs stretching it out and hoping they aren't doing it at even the slightest angle....hope it works. certainly can't be worse than the current system.
Maybe that don't line up of they are not even... that's how they could know they are even? We can discuss laser technology, but I think this guys got most of that figured out. Assuming it works, and that it won't fry the eyes of anyone looking at it, and that the networks can't even get their lines lined up correctly. I think it would be pretty cool addition to the game.
I never thought it would actually burn someone's eyes, but still, even a flashlight can mess you up. I'm just saying it could happen that someone has to sit out, one play maybe more, because of the thing.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8GzfyzNJQ8&feature=related]YouTube - First Down Laser Systems, LLC[/ame]
Wonder how things would handle getting hit. Next they need to figure out how to tell in a pile up if the ball actually made that line for a first down or a touchdown. That should take him another 6-10 years to figure out. Anything we can do to cut down on where the refs can heck up, I'm all for.
I don't think it is supposed to tell anyone if the ball broke the plane (like with a sensor or something.) I think it is literally just a beam of light so you can see if the ball broke the plane after the spot. That was my take on it...I could be wrong...
Right, but would like to see something designed to be able to determine if the ball crosses the line. Right now, it's virtually impossible in many cases to determine that. Get's to be strictly a guess on the refs part.
That sort of thing will always be a guess on the refs part in some way. For example, if you put a chip in the ball if it crosses the goal line the refs would still need to determine of the runners knee or whatever was down before it crossed. I don't even think it would be too helpful of this did that (the goal line is different because it's static and you have more players bunched together, so a lot of time the issue is actually seeing the ball) because it's so often that the ball will cross the line after a players is down. What's it like 50+% of the time a runner rolls or sticks his arm out pass the marker even though they were stopped short. Having a line gauge would certainly help with accuracy on 1st downs though. It would also help the players know exactly where they need to get, especially the ones that always run third down plays short of the 1st down markers.
