Fourth Year Engineering

Leg Before Wicket?
(Information Engineering Project, David Mansergh)

Sports officials (referees and umpires) these days have a difficult job. Viewers sitting at home are treated to endless replays and have time to mull over decisions that have to be made instantly on the field. One sport that is experiencing particular difficulties is cricket. Video replays are already used to clarify line decisions. Other technologies such as the 'Snickometer' and 'Red Zone' are also often used by cricket commentators.

Now, a fourth year project offered in information engineering is using advances in computer vision techniques to help decide whether or not a batsman should be correctly judged out 'LBW' (Leg before wicket). David Mansergh, the student currently signed on for this project explains:

"The system uses video footage from two of the TV cameras used to cover the match - the 'bowler's arm' and 'mid-wicket' views. This avoids the problems of using dedicated cameras which would make the system more expensive and more complicated to set up. The work that we have done so far allows us to find the position of the ball in 3D space for a sequence of images, and to calculate and extrapolate its trajectory from these, thereby showing whether or not it would hit the stumps."

"My primary reason for choosing this fourth year project was not that I have a particularly strong interest in cricket, but that it combines a number of interesting challenges. It is nice to be doing a project that has an obvious real world application and that other people can understand. The project is progressing well, but I am unlikely to have time to finish it, so someone else will be able to continue it next year. It has been a great opportunity for me to develop my programming skills."

David worked for 'Quantel', a company based in Newbury, during his gap year between school and University. They design and manufacture a range of innovative products for the television, print and film markets. "I had never written a proper computer program before I went to work for Quantel, but during that year I learned how to program in Pascal. Then, in my first year at Cambridge I learned C++." David has been sponsored by Quantel during his time at university and has accepted a job with them when he graduates.