Tennis evolution

 

In this section of our blogg we will be explaining how some technology advances in the 80’s revolutioned the world of sports in a way hard to imagine. We will specifically talk about tennis.

In this type of game, in order to eliminate any kind of confusion among calls, the cyclops was the first system implanted capable of distinguishing whether the ball is out or in. It was developed by inventor Bill Carlton and Margaret Parnis England in 1979 It consisted of placing a net of six infra-red beams really close to the ground, at 1 centimeter.  While the tennis players were playing, the moment the ball was out, the play would be stopped with a sound and a red light.

An inconvenient that eventually appeared was that for instance, when serving, the beams were not useful since you could not know what object was breaking the beam. We could even find situations where something random such as insects and dirt in the wind caused interference. This and some other problems, forced the end of its use in 2005, 25 years later. It was replaced by a more accurate tool, the Hawkeye. Competition and tournament organizers were quick to get rid of it. The end of the Cyclops left open doors for the Hawkeye to emerge and be the substituting tool.

Nowadays this machine is no longer in use and it has been completely replaced, but it definitely was an advanced technology for the era it was in.