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http://www.youtube.com/user/KingUndercover1, but the following picture shows where the ball is relative to the goal line.
Of course, the German press had a whole different view of the event, choosing to depict it as follows, which I do admit to be quite clever. (picture courtesy of Sandor Szabo)
I'm sure the English don't find this to be particularly humorous.
So what does this have to do with Informix? Well, if you recall that one of our best references in recent years has been the solution offered by Cairos/IMPIRE of Germany, who uses Informix to provide real-time sports statistics in the German soccer league (Bundesliga). That solution has been very successful and continues to be used today. However, at the same time that the solution is used for statistics, the idea of introducing the use of a RFID chip in the soccer ball also came up. The information captured by the RFID chip will definitively identify the location of the soccer ball. It would put an end to these types of disputes that has plagued the soccer world for so many years. We have the technology with Informix to solve this problem. An article from the RFID Journal points to additional testing that has to be done, but it is nevertheless available.
(http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/print/2029)
However, like some many things, it is not about the technology. FIFA (The world Football Association) is refusing to even consider instant-replay, let alone RFID chip in the ball. In fact, their reaction to the weekend fiasco has been to ban all instant replays in the stadium.
I plan to resume my normal blog of hopefully more Informix pertinent information in another week or so (which happens to coincide with the conclusion of the world cup).
