Soccer Match Ruined When AI-Controlled Camera Mistakes Ref’s Bald Head for Ball
SB Nation | 30 Oct 2020 | James DatorTechnology in sports is a beautiful thing, but sometimes even the greatest inventions can go wrong. This happened over the weekend in a soccer game in Scotland, when an AI-controlled camera got confused, and thought a lineman’s bald head was the ball.
…To make matters worse Scotland is under strict social distancing measures. With no fans in attendance this was the only ways for fans of Iverness and Ayr United to watch the match, and instead they were treated to 90 minutes of head watching.

Still the best reaction to automation mixing with sports ever was Ilie Nastase, on his knees, screaming at the service line detector at Wimbledon, accusing it of being made in Russia…
I didn’t realize they had a service line detector while Nastase was still playing. I don’t remember him on the court, and I remember watching Bjorn Borg win titles at Wimbledon. (Okay, I was a kid, and not a tennis fan, so the only players from that era I could have named were Borg, McEnroe, Jimmy Conners, Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova and Tracie Austin.)
People watch soccer? Still?
Nobody at the stadium could have told the ref to put on a freaking hat?