Kagan: There’s lots of physics to do now that Hawk-Eye is up and running
From SABR member David Kagan at The Hardball Times on March 16, 2020:
I just got done streaming the MLB Statcast Update from the 2020 SABR Analytics Conference. Wow! MLB’s baseball research analyst Jason Bernard, vice president of baseball data Greg Cain, baseball scientist Clay Nunnally, and director of baseball research and development Daren Willman shared the status, abilities, and potential of the new data collection system for Statcast called Hawk-Eye.
They reported that MLB has the new data collection system up and running in every park – a bright spot in an otherwise disturbingly messy offseason. The previous measurement system was a hybrid of radar by Trackman and video technology from ChyronHego. Hawk-Eye uses only video cameras to collect raw data and, most likely, a massive amount of state-of-the-art computing power to manipulate the flood of images into useful tools.
The new system has 12 cameras arranged around the ballpark. Five of the cameras look at the area between the mound and home plate. You might recall the original SportVision (now SMT) system used only three. These cameras are designed for pitch tracking as well as monitoring the pitcher, catcher, batter, and perhaps the umpire as well. These 8-megapixel cameras collect 100 frames per second. The remaining seven cameras are 11-megapixel, 50 frames per second, and can track the motion of everyone on the field (fielders, runners, coaches, umpires and, who knows, crazed fans). All told, the cameras generate 10 gigabits of data per second.
Read the full article here: https://tht.fangraphs.com/theres-lots-of-physics-to-do-now-that-hawk-eye-is-up-and-running/
Originally published: March 19, 2020. Last Updated: March 19, 2020.