Wimbledon takes tennis high-tech

The Evening Standard sees even more benefit to the roof and its lights – the potential they have for drawing larger TV audiences as matches can now be scheduled into the evening. Though the move could be lucrative, officials insist night matches at Wimbledon will remain the exception and not the rule.

Smartphone-enhanced viewing

IBM has launched an Android smart phone app that gives tournament attendees supplemental data for matches in real time. Load up the "Seer Android" app on a T-Mobile G1, point its camera at a match, and the app will show what court you're on and who's playing, relevant tweets, and even comments from players. "It's about visualizing data in a different way," IBM's Alan Flack told Reuters in an interview.

(Electric) eye-spy

A technology called Hawk-Eye has been in use at major tournaments since 2006, using a triangulation system of 11 cameras to make line calls accurate to 3.6 millimeters, and making line judge errors a thing of the past. It's instant replay for tennis. Players have responded positively to its introduction, save for world No. 1 Roger Federer, who has said he doesn't see the point of it.

Some have challenged the technology behind the system, saying it lacks transparency. Its inventor, British computer scientist Paul Hawkins, has fiercely defended these claims, and says that giving up too much information about his system could give competitors an unfair advantage. Hawkins says the World Tennis Federation has tested the system exhaustively, and that it falls well within their accuracy guidelines.

Tweet your tennis?

Finally, this year marks the first time there's been "official" Wimbledon Twitter coverage.
@Centre_Court serves as a kind of live-microblog, sending play-by-play of the biggest matches to its 1,500+ followers. @Wimbledon has fed its nearly 20,000 followers updates ranging from tame – "Friday's order of play: Federer v Haas at 1pm followed by Murray v Roddick both on Centre Court" to, well, TMI: "Andy Murray is apparently eating 6000 calories a day during the Championships."

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We're on Twitter, too. Keep up with the tech back-and-forth by following @CSMHorizonsBlog.

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