Soccer

Google is launching cross-platform features to make it easier to follow the FIFA World Cup • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in Apps, fifa world cup, Football, Google, SoccerNo Comments

Google is rolling out a bunch of updates across platforms making it easier for fans to follow the FIFA World Cup starting November 20. These include a daily highlights video from TV networks, customized notifications, a dedicated section on Google TV, and a multiplayer game. Just like for any sport, you can search with phrases like “FIFA World Cup” or the “World Cup” and you’ll get the latest scores from the tournament. You can subscribe to tournament notifications by hitting the bell icon. Plus, you can subscribe to individual teams’ alerts under the notification menu. Scores of these world cup soccer matches will also show live stats and win probability graphs. If users want to follow individual matches but don’t want to search every time for updates they can pin scores to the home screen. To do that, they can tap the “Pin live score” option in the score pane for an ongoing upcoming match. Notably, these features are available for other tournaments and sports as well. Image Credits: Google Google has partnered with FIFA+ and official broadcasters including beIN Sports, BBC, ZDF and more to show daily video recaps under the matches section. So if you have missed out on some key moments, you can easily catch up. Image Credits: Google The search giant is soon adding the ability to rate a player based on how users think they will perform in the tournament. They can also compare these scores with other players. Google usually adds a little browser-based game for big events like this and the World Cup is no exception. Once the real-life match is set with line ups, you can choose a team and try and score as many goals as possible in the game. The score of gamers across the world will be added to that team’s total. You will see that score while playing the game as well. Image Credits: Google The company is adding a new label for businesses that will help users discover places that are showing world cup matches. When you search for “Where to watch the world cup near me,” you will see a label saying “Showing the world cup” in the listing for bars and restaurants in Search and Maps. This label will launch just before the world cup and business owners will be able to apply for it at that time. Image Credits: Google YouTube TV subscribers will be able to watch the world cup on FOX and FS1 with gameplay features like real-time highlights, stats, and scores. They can also stream these matches in ultra-high definition if they have subscribed to the 4K Plus add-on. Google TV will show live matches in the “For You” tab and it will add a new row showing world cup content from partners like FIFA+, ITV, Peacock, Telemundo, and ViX. Image Credits: Google

Watch two Mini Cheetah robots square off on the soccer field • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in Hardware, mini cheetah, robot, Robotics & AI, SoccerNo Comments

Some robotics challenges have immediately clear applications. Others are more focused on helping systems solve broader challenges. Teaching small robots to play soccer against one another fits firmly into the latter category. The authors of a new paper detailing the use of reinforcement learning to teach MIT’s Mini Cheetah robot to play goalie note, Soccer goalkeeping using quadrupeds is a challenging problem, that combines highly dynamic locomotion with precise and fast non-prehensile object (ball) manipulation. The robot needs to react to and intercept a potentially flying ball using dynamic locomotion maneuvers in a very short amount of time, usually less than one second. In this paper, we propose to address this problem using a hierarchical model-free RL framework. Image Credits: Hybrid Robotics Effectively, the robot needs to lock into a projectile and maneuver itself to block the ball in under a second. The robot’s parameters are defined in an emulator, and the Mini Cheetah relies on a trio of moves — sidestep, dive, and jump – to block the ball on its way to the goal by determining its trajectory while in motion. To test the efficacy of the program, the team pitted the system against both a human component and a fellow Mini Cheetah. Notably, the same basic framework used to defend the goal can by applied to offense. The paper’s authors note, “In this work, we focused solely on the goalkeeping task, but the proposed framework can be extended to other scenarios, such as multi-skill soccer ball kicking.”