Smart Turf

[LAXDawg14]

has anyone read anything about smart tuft [or smarturf]

sounds like some pretty cool stuff where the lines on the field can be changed by computer or something

[Campbell]

That looks pretty cool. Found an article about the stuff I think you are talking about :

http://www.sportexe.com/turf_news_forbes_article.htm

[Sonny]

Very cool. Here is the direct link to the Forbes article:
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/1127/058.html

But Sportexe, 40% owned by former Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell, believes the future of turf is interactive. Here's how its "turf TV" works: A computer sends an image to the field, where it is distributed among 1,750 interconnected square trays, 7.5 feet on a side, that host their own light processing circuitry. Thousands of blades of polyethylene grass, blended with optical fibers, reflect light upward from the trays. It's like a computer monitor that you can walk on. A football field would have 128 million pixels, which works out to 1,280 per square foot. In pixels per square foot it can't hold a candle to your television set; in total pixels it's well ahead.

Unlike your flat screen at home, this display is equipped to withstand the impact of a 380-pound lineman. The blades are conducting light, not electricity, so athletes can't be electrocuted on rainy days, even if they're losing badly.

At $1.5 million, the purchase price of an interactive field will be three times that of an unilluminated in-fill field and eight times that of a natural grass field. But Sportexe's Nicholls points out that the ten-year maintenance bill on grass can approach $1 million, 20 times the cost of maintaining an in-fill field. A stadium owner may be able to pay the mortgage on the interactive grass with ad revenue or host more events if the field lines can be changed so easily and rapidly.

Nicholls says the lit-up fields are still two years away from commercialization. The technology, though, is already being employed, most notably on artificial Christmas trees.

"The technology isn't really that amazing," he says. "It's just that no one's done it on a field yet."

[Beta]

Cool stuff...I can see a lot of benefits from this:

1. On field 1st down markers
2. Animated mascots/logos

and the biggie
3. Advertising.

I can see Nationwide shelling out big money to put a picture of K-Fed all up in thurr.

[Brent Burns]

Wonder if they would have yellow markers to show where the first down would be?

[CSUalum32]

This sounds very cool. Make things easier on players, coaches and fans.

[yourmom]

I want to see pictures and examples!

[Phantanimal]

The upkeep of something like that would be painstaking and costly. Having to figure out which of the 175 circuit boards had the malfunctioning blade of fiberoptic grass. I don't see that catching on...

[scooter]

The upkeep of something like that would be painstaking and costly. Having to figure out which of the 175 circuit boards had the malfunctioning blade of fiberoptic grass. I don't see that catching on...

i agree completely....people are trampling on these fields, something is bound to break or get crushed somewhere

[Dawson]

Too bad they don't have any videos or images of the turf. That would be great to see it in action.

I don't see any reason why it can't catch on. With the advertising possibilities, I doubt we'll have to wait too long to see it. How cool would that be as a player to actually see the first down marker in front of you instead of looking to the sidelines and just guessing? Say goodbye to the chang gain on that field.

[Adam G]

Call me a traditionalist, but I don't want to see anything like this at the following places:

-Lambeau Field
-Fenway Park
-Yankee Stadium
-Soldier Field
-99% of college football stadiums (1% being Boise St, anything's better than that blue)

I would be sick to my stomach if I ever saw a Geico or GoDaddy.com ad on the pitch of any of these fields

[Brent Burns]

Hope that does not apply to soccer pitches. Corporate logos on the field would be too distracting.

[Adam G]

Hope that does not apply to soccer pitches. Corporate logos on the field would be too distracting.

That's funny... I think it'd liven up a game of soccer!

[yourmom]

Thinking more and more about this, I decided I really hope it doesn't work out. Don't get me wrong im all for the First down yellow line and such, but do you really want to see a miller light ad in the back field during play? Couldn't it be distracting to a reciever trying to land in bounds if he's on a doritos ad? I would assume that they would at least prohibit the ads during play, but they try to get ad revenue any way they can so who knows.

[Dawson]

I don't think advertising would get that bad...I think the big piece is just having adjustable advertising. During halftime there can be ads all over the field and then maybe when a team is making a drive the opposite direction, the endzone will be an ad. I don't think they would allow the ads to be distracting to players, because that could definitely pose a problem.