Will technology replace human judgements in sport? Will we need human referees and judges?
There are already technologies that assist umpires in sports like tennis with line calls (Miah, 2000), but it is not clear whether technology will evolve to eliminate referees altogether. As regards officiating in subjective sports such as gymnastics, figure skating, and diving, researchers are looking into new ways of training human judges to be more objective and consistent in their ratings. The idea is that computerized judging is not technically possible at the moment, nor is it necessarily desirable. What is probably more valuable, is the development of techniques which give judges opportunities to practice with the identification of relevant cues, to consider their physical view position and the ramifications of their location, and the ability to react and record their thoughts accurately and efficiently. This includes the development of simulations, which allow the judge to make and review their decisions, re-evaluate their decisions from different vantage points, and then evalu
