南非世界杯官方比赛用球“普天同庆”虽然被国际足联称为最精准的足球，但是球员和球迷们却对这个科技含量不高的足球颇有微词。为此，墨西哥的几位设计师打算自主研发一款高科技足球，将摄像头、灯泡和GPS芯片等设备融入球体内，在比赛过程中可以随时通过球体看到比赛回放，球在越过球门线的时候会发出颜色鲜明的灯光，这样就可以杜绝英德大战中英国进球被误判那样的情况出现。该设计团队的负责人表示，近几年足球设计改革都是在做表面文章，没有实质性的改变，没有人考虑过足球会对比赛产生怎样的影响。目前，这个设计团队正在研究如何才能将摄像头、电源、芯片以及感应器这些设备放入重450克的足球里，同时还要研发出能够从飞速运行的球体摄像头拍摄中获取稳定视频画面的软件。他们面临的另一个挑战是，要选择怎样的合成材料制作足球才能够在妥善保护球体内高科技设备的同时，还经得起赛场上激烈的踢踏和碰撞。

This year's World Cup ball, the Jabulani, has been criticized for seemingly weightless shots sailing over crossbars, wobbly trajectory and goalkeeper blunders.

If a grooved World Cup ball can upset some of the game's best players, how would they react to a ball packed with cameras, lights and a GPS chip?

A team of Mexico City-based designers are trying to revolutionize soccer with a ball that could beam out TV replays and light up in bright colors when it crosses the goal line to clear up any refereeing gaffes, like the one that cost England a goal on Sunday in its 4-1 World Cup loss to Germany.

"What we wanted to do with this ball is to demonstrate how a product that historically has not changed can be innovated and taken in a completely new, completely different direction," said Alberto Villarreal, a industrial designer who is leading the project in a country where soccer is a national obsession.

This year's World Cup ball, the Jabulani, has been criticized for seemingly weightless shots sailing over crossbars, wobbly trajectory and goalkeeper blunders.

Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar has likened the Jabulani to a cheap supermarket ball and Argentina star Lionel Messi has said playing with the ball was "very complicated."

The seamless, groove-covered Jabulani, whose name means "to celebrate" in Zulu, was billed as the most accurate ball yet when it was unveiled by the game's governing body FIFA.

"Innovations in balls in recent years have been superficial, nothing more," said Villarreal, 33, from the project's studio office in Mexico City. "But how a ball can influence different game conditions hasn't been considered."

At their office, a team of five young designers pore over screens working out the hitches of jamming cameras, a power source, chips and sensors into a 450-gram (1-pound) ball.

Challenges facing the project include creating software to stabilize images captured from multiple cameras in a rapidly spinning ball.

Designers have yet to decide on a synthetic outer material that will behave like a traditional ball but protect its delicate interior from heavy kicks and impacts from posts and crossbars. The ball will not be inflated.

Villarreal has kept the research and development costs under wraps and plans to be able to sell the design to a major ball maker in two years.

But getting a blessing from FIFA will be difficult even if the ball eventually behaves like a traditional ball.

"FIFA has always been a bit opposed to the entrance of technology in football while it's happening in other sports," said Villarreal.

Mexico City-based ball maker Voit, whose balls are used in professional Mexican soccer, is optimistic it will become a viable product and could be interested in manufacturing it.

"For this ball to be approved by FIFA it must meet certain characteristics," said Carla Colombo, Voit's marketing director.

"Maybe it won't pass the tests but it could perfectly be part of a national or international line of balls."

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(Agencies)

Vocabulary:

refereeing gaffes: 裁判失误

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）