Sports

New software could create computerized sportscasters

Could a computer replace this era's crop of clownish sportscasters like Dick Vitale or Lee Corso? We can dream--while a Swiss company works on software that could create artificial intelligence systems to call sporting events.

Computer researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland are working on a system that can track multiple athletes on a football field, a basketball court, or a soccer pitch via multiple cameras and advanced scanning algorithms. These days, computers can track human athletes, racing cars, and other sporting elements via GPS. But that's illegal in many sports as the introduction of such technology threatens to overpower the human element of athletics. The EPFL technology uses visual cues instead. … Read more

Ideo's electric bike wins design competition

An electric bike, created by the Palo Alto, Calif., design consultancy Ideo and Santa Cruz, Calif., bike maker Rock Lobster Custom Cycles, has won the competition for creating the best urban utility bike in the Oregon Manifest creative collaboration challenge.

The bike, which combines classic styling with an electric motor, beat out the creations of the pairing of Portland, Ore., design firm Ziba with bike builder Signal Cycles, and the tandem of San Francisco design consultancy Fuseproject with Santa Rosa, Calif., SyCip Designs.

On its Web site, Oregon Manifest posted reviews of each bike from four independent critics. Then, it … Read more

The ultimate utility bike? Maybe it's an e-bike

PORTLAND, Ore.--For years, the cycling industry has wrestled with creating a bike convenient enough for the masses.

A new effort from the Palo Alto, Calif., design consultancy Ideo and Santa Cruz, Calif., bike builder Rock Lobster Custom Cycles may have pushed the industry a step closer to achieving the goal. The team created a bike for the Oregon Manifest 2011 Constructor's Design Challenge, a bike building competition pitting three teams of designers and handcrafted bike builders. Their goal: create the best utility bike for urban living.

This summer, CNET visited with the three teams--including the pairing of Portland … Read more

Have NFL players had enough of fantasy football?

The Web breeds fantasy.

It lets us become different people. It lets us impress those we never thought we'd ever have a chance of impressing. And it lets us believe that we are just as wily, difficult, and very slightly obnoxious as the most successful people in the world. The New England Patriots' coach Bill Belichick, for example.

Yet now that fantasy football has become more prevalent in human minds than, say, learning a foreign language (some say 25 million people will have teams this season), a couple of NFL players have come out and expressed some heartfelt--and not … Read more

George Lucas' daughter tries to star in martial-arts wars

Who needs a lightsaber when you can kick, punch, and twist the living daylights out of your enemy?

This seems to be the charming ethos of Mixed Martial Arts. It is one that is being espoused by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' daughter, Amanda.

I am grateful to the hard-working informants at Yahoo Sports, who have mined the depths of their metier to bring me news of Amanda "Powerhouse" Lucas' latest attempt to skywalk in the world of MMA.

It seems that she performed last night at a profound event called DEEP 55 in Japan. (I … Read more

Baseball season welcomes new mobile apps (video)

I am a diehard baseball fan. Wait, let me clarify: I am a diehard Oakland Athletics fan. And now's a good time to throw in a full disclosure: I also work for the team on game days as their in-stadium host. I know--it's the greatest job ever for a baseball fan! When I saw that my CNET colleague Erica Ogg was writing a piece about mobile apps for baseball, I thought it would be a perfect way to combine my passions--baseball and tech--into one cool and useful story for our CBS audience.

As an LA Dodgers fan, Erica … Read more

GameSlam takes players deeper than fantasy baseball

Baseball is a team sport, but for fans of the major leagues, there's never been a good way to play along in real time.

Until now that is, say the creators of GameSlam, a real-time social predictive baseball game that allows fans to get in on the fun even as the balls and strikes are being thrown and the home runs are clearing the fences.

For years, baseball aficionados have been able to take part in Major League Baseball by joining a fantasy league. And there are 10 million people in leagues like this, as well as 20 million … Read more

NFL teams may replace playbooks with iPads

ARLINGTON, Texas--NFL teams including the Dallas Cowboys could soon be abandoning their traditional paper playbooks and game-day printouts of plays in favor of iPads or other tablets.

Pete Walsh, head of technology for the Cowboys, said his team and at least a "couple" of others are currently considering abandoning their playbooks in favor of iPads, a move they feel could save them as much as 5,000 pages of paper printouts per game.

Walsh explained this potential philosophical and technological shift to CNET during a discussion about Cowboys Stadium technology at Super Bowl Media Day here Tuesday. The … Read more

Sunday's football game winner revealed on the Web

There are some who believe American football would be nothing without Vegas.

And the folks in Vegas seem a little unsure who might win Sunday's football game between Green Bay and Pittsburgh. The line is tight and the professionals are sweating in the Bellagio Sports Book.

Fortunately, the Web has allegedly been a foolproof indicator recently of which team will clutch the Vince Lombardi trophy and try not to say "F*** yeah!!" as did San Francisco's Tim Lincecum when his team won the World Series.

The folks at Infegy, which appears to be a sort of … Read more