Just embracing the little ways in which technology has enhanced entertainment!

In Praise of Technology: Sportvision

Well, I have decided that if I could do ANY job as a software developer, I would want to work at Sportvision (http://www.sportvision.com). This is the company that developed the 1st and 10 line in football. That yellow line for the 1st down is one of the reasons I like to watch my MEEECHIGAN football at home (in addition to easily accessible bathroom facilities, no traffic, not being squeezed into the small seats at Michigan stadium, and my husband’s fabulous guacamole!).

My Olympic viewing has also been enhanced by SportVision. I love the “world record line” that the swimmers chased in the last summer Olympics. I love watching the current ski leader superimposed on the screen with the current racer. And the team who developed the technology to “embed” the country flag below the ice for speedskating amazes me. The graphic is SO good. I’m not all that much of a speedskating fan, but I will confess to have watched a bit last night just to get a good glimpse of the flags to see if any shadows, etc. were missing. It just looks flawless to me!

I heard an interview on NPR yesterday by a representative of Sportvison, about the use of their technology at the winter Olympics. It was pretty cool. You can hear the interview at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5204366.

So … the real geek question is … what language, toolkits, etc. do they use? Wouldn’t you love to know?! (Of note: their website doesn’t work very well with Firefox)