By LIN Yuchen

Theuse of digital technology in competitive sports is nothing new. The combinationof technology and sports is not only changing the way audiences watch sportsevents, but also enabling athletes to enjoy different kinds of training andmaintenance. Scoring and refereeing can also be enhanced by technology.

EmanuelLeite Junior, an associate researcher from Tongji University in Shanghai, notesthat with the developments in the past few years, digital technology is nowused to monitor players’ runs, including when a soccer player kicks the ball.Relevant technologies also provide sleep monitoring, which can improve thequality of training and the recovery process of an athlete's health.

JiaoYang, an assistant researcher at the Future Laboratory, Tsinghua University,says VR cameras are playing a much larger role as a supplement to traditionallenses. Conducting 360-degree video shoots inside sports arenas, these VRcameras can be placed on the baseline, sidelines, or even on drones to achievepanoramic shots.

“VRand augmented reality (AR) device industries are developing very rapidly,” hepoints out. “We have already seen many excellent products, like the Pico andQuest (VR headsets) and VR and AR devices from Apple.” As these devices becomemore comfortable and portable, more and more content creators are entering theVR industry.

However,the use of digital technology in sports is not without controversies. Sun Xiao,lead artificial intelligence (AI) scientist for research on AI for sports atthe Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, says the current AI systemsrely heavily on the collection of sports data and human-designed algorithms.People may collect data with bias, while the algorithm rules are inconsistent.This may result in inconsistency in the interpretation of the data.

Accordingto Sun, some people think applying AI technology to games may impact theaudience’s passion and could be criticized by some fans. However, he concedesthat such controversies are insignificant compared to the way new technologieshave helped to improve the standard of sport in several ways.

ChrisYap, Vice President of sales and business development for software developmentcompany Pixellot in Asia, echoes Sun, saying there will always be somecontroversy whether people use technology or not. And that's what makes sportsevents interesting – it triggers an emotional resonance. The introduction of AItechnology, introducing better or future technology, adds a really interestingelement to the whole event itself.

Yapalso mentions the advantages that technology can bring to sports. For example,if you integrate multiple types of cameras on a single platform and have themrun autonomously, you have wider coverage, using more exciting ways to produceand participate in events.