The Premier League kicks off this week, and a new AI referee tool to spot when players are offside will be coming on board before it ends, as first reported by Wired. The league has turned to sports tech company Genius Sports and its Semi-Assisted Offside Technology (SAOT).
Unlike the usual video assistant referee (VAR) systems, SAOT doesn’t need expensive 4K cameras, just a network of between 24 and 28 iPhones around the pitch. The built-in GeniusIQ AI then analyzes the images collected by the iPhones to work out precisely where every bit of a player was at any moment and whether they were offside.
