The National Football League (NFL) announced this week that its players will begin using RFID tracking chips during some games in the 2014 season.
Football teams are looking to use the chips as a way to improve plays, as the chips will be able to generate exact positioning data on each player for every play, according to Discovery News.
The first rollout will have the RFID system used in 17 of the NFL's 31 stadiums. Two chips will be used to track the players, with one being placed on each shoulder pad. By broadcasting data in real time, teams will be provided with information on positioning, velocity, direction, distance run and force-of-impact.
The chips are designed by Zebra Technologies, a company based in Lincolnshire, England, and are about the size of a quarter in diameter and about two quarters thick. They run on small, watch-type batteries that last about a year, can be washed, and are strong enough to take hard hits, Chicago Tribune reported.
The technology will be used by the Bears against the Buffalo Bills in the first game of the season on Sept. 7th.
"Just like your Wi-Fi system at home, your laptop communicates to your Wi-Fi access point and then you get onto the Internet," said Jill Stelfox, vice president and general manager of Zebra's location team. "It's exactly the same ... (but) at a different frequency."
The NFL will use its MotionWorks system to analyze the data collected from the chips. The system generates statistics for each play, and can even add graphics within the broadcast's standard two-second delay, Discovery News reported.
Stadiums that will participate in the upcoming program include Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Green Bay, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, New England, New Orleans, Oakland, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington.
The technology has been used by Zebra before to track the locations of nurses and U.S. soldiers, as well as a few cars from NASCAR. The chips have also been used by Ford and General Motors to track inventories, Chicago Tribune reported.
League spokesman Brian McCarthy said the NFL has been looking into the sensor chips for a long time. The league said, in its collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association in 2011, that it could have players wear such tracking devices to collect information on their performance.
"This goes back to something Commissioner (Roger) Goodell has stressed during his tenure here, which is to embrace technology, use it to make the technology better for the players, the coaches, and at home for the fans," McCarthy said.
