The State of Qatar is preparing to host the World Cup for the first time in the history of the Arab world and the Middle East, from November 21 to December 18 of this year 2022. This will be the second edition of the World Cup to be held in Asia, after the World Cup in South Korea and Japan. Established in 2002.
Qatar had won the right to host the World Cup in 2010 in a historic event that writes letters of gold in the history of the young and ambitious country. .
It is expected that more than one million fans from all over the world will flock to watch the World Cup matches and support their teams. In this context, the State of Qatar has spared no effort to ensure that these thousands of fans, in addition to the accompanying players and administrators, will participate; A unique experience that reflects the ancient Arab culture, and the progress and prosperity that Qatar has achieved.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing is the advanced technologies and modern technology, many of which will be used for the first time in history in the Arab World Cup in Qatar.
Artificial intelligence helps referees in the Qatar World Cup
The refereeing decisions in the World Cup matches have been the subject of many dialogues, discussions and disputes over many years, after many controversial decisions taken by the referees in these matches, such as: Did the ball cross the goal line in the final match of the World Cup in 1966?, or the goal that Diego Maradona scored it with his hand in the famous match between Argentina and England in the 1986 World Cup, leading to some of the decisions taken by the video referees in the World Cup in Russia in 2018. All of these controversial decisions are still in the conversation, and fans who watched those matches will not forget them as long as they survived , as the writer Steve Pierce mentioned in a report published by Forbes magazine recently.
In fact, the referees need all the help they can get, and right now, as we approach the World Cup that will be held in Qatar, they are about to get the help of artificial intelligence to help them run the matches.
To deal with these relatively high temperatures, Qatar stadiums will be equipped with cooling systems to ensure an ideal temperature for players and spectators, as the outside air is cooled through solar-powered air conditioning fans, and cold air enters the stadium through openings in the stands and other large nozzles in the stadium And using air circulation technology, the cooled air is drawn back, where the drawn rear air is then re-cooled and filtered, and once it is re-cooled and filtered, the recycled air is pushed back into the stadium, according to what the Qatar 2022 platform (qatar2022) reported.
Wearable devices for medical assistance
A series of wearable electronic devices is currently in development to help avoid medical emergencies for any fan attending the World Cup in Qatar, and work continues to print low-energy sensors directly onto the fabric to measure heart rate, breathing and hydration into matching jerseys that will be distributed during the competition. These shirts work via Bluetooth and send their data to the base station, so that the vital signs of the fans can be monitored in real time. This is according to what the Irish Examiner platform mentioned in a report on the most prominent technologies used in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Advanced technology and smart applications to deliver food during matches
Fans will be able to order food to their seats in Qatar's stadiums, using the Asapp smartphone application, whereby fans can arrange food delivery to their seats or pick-up via express queues, which means saving a lot of time for fans who were often missing out. One of the goals is because they are busy buying and fetching food, and the "Smart Wifi" technology, in addition to the mobile charging stations available in abundance in Qatari stadiums, will allow fans to stay connected all the time.
Navigation in real time
A series of sensors around the Qatari capital, Doha, will provide real-time information to help with transportation to and from the stadiums, and feedback on traffic, taxis and parking, the new metro system, and entrances and exits to the site will be sent via a specially designed smartphone app. This application will also help fans to navigate the indoor spaces of stadiums, shopping malls and entertainment venues, as mentioned in the aforementioned Irish Examiner report.
advanced lighting systems
Another technology mentioned in the previous report and will be used in the Qatar World Cup, where all stadiums in Qatar are equipped with LED technology, which is characterized by color-changing lights and other display effects that can be used in the opening and closing ceremonies in the Al-Bayt and Lusail stadiums. Energy-saving, non-toxic, and has a lifespan up to 6 times that of conventional bulbs.
Sensory viewing rooms
And "sensory viewing rooms" were established in the stadiums to provide safe and quiet spaces for people with autism or those who have other health problems that prevent them from watching matches from the stands - as the report mentioned - and these rooms are characterized by interactive display of matches, and controlled lighting, And games to help them enjoy watching the game in a comfortable environment.
The writer points out that over the past few years, FIFA (International Football Association) has experimented with using “stealth technology” to track players’ hands and feet, a technology that uses artificial intelligence along with a series of cameras transmitted around the stadium to follow the players’ limbs, and create Virtual offside lines for referees immediately, and this technology has been used so far in the Club World Cup and the Arab Football Cup, which were held in the State of Qatar recently, and FIFA intends to use it in the Qatar World Cup 2022.
The most remarkable thing is the advanced technologies and modern technology, many of which will be used for the first time in history in the Qatar Arab World Cup (Reuters)
Given all the issues with VAR technology currently being used in stadiums, there may be some concerns about the use of AI in football, but Dr Patrick Lucy, chief scientist at sports data company Stats Perform. In statements to Forbes magazine, he says, "FIFA's approach when it comes to tracking the parties used in this offside technique is the right one."
He explains that "instead of making fully automated decisions, artificial intelligence is used to give accurate measurements and create offside lines that had to be drawn manually previously, and this eliminates human error, and it does not mean that the human factor is completely absent, as the referee or assistant referee can look at The image created by the artificial intelligence, knows instantly whether a player is offside, but the referee can also use his own judgment to decide whether that player is interfering with play, or if there is any other reason to decide whether the goal is not.”
The whole process is a collaborative process between humans and machines, and here Dr. Lucy explains that this approach combines "getting humans to do what they do really well and making computers do what they are really good at." For this reason, the head of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina, said that this was not an "automatic offside".
The writer points out that although TV broadcasts do not provide the quality of the live tracking technology required for the parties to make accurate arbitration decisions, artificial intelligence will be able to use TV broadcasts to generate real-time statistics including expected goals, the estimated position of players on the field, and are That's using a fingerprint of player tracking data for the past 20 years, along with machine learning algorithms to estimate the whereabouts of players who aren't on screen.
Smart roads in Doha Qatar
Traffic Technologies recently won a contract to supply its Smart City software to manage Qatar's existing road network during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, according to The Market Herald. ) Recently.
The platform indicated that the aforementioned smart city program creates a digital copy (virtual representation) of the road network used in Qatar, which can be used for applications such as traffic control systems, which leads to managing this movement more efficiently than before, especially during the World Cup matches. And the expected traffic congestion during it, especially with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the world to the State of Qatar to follow the World Cup matches and encourage their teams.
This program gives special priority to buses during the World Cup, because many of these buses will transport the participating teams from their places of residence to the stadiums and back, as well as to transport fans to and from