Missile-tracking systems to provide video technology for leg before wicket decisions in cricket? Not in No 8 wire country New Zealand.

The country that took on the space age technology of the United States, the high-tech countries of France, Italy and Japan to win and retain yachting's America's Cup, has shown that it can also do without missile-tracking systems in sorting out little old leg before wicket decisions.

News came through yesterday that scientists at Siemens in England have developed a 'Hawk-Eye' system that can determine within 5mm accuracy whether a batsman is out leg before wicket.

It is planned the system will be in use for next year's Ashes series in England.

Three high-speed cameras are used to track the ball to create a three-dimensional image of the ball as it leaves the bowler's hand. The cameras produces video images which allows the pitch of the ball, its swing, its velocity and any deviation to be assessed and a decision to be made.

More than $500,000 has been spent developing the English system.

Massey University senior lecturer Huub Bakker has quietly been working on something similar since 1994, along with the occasional Masters student.

"With our two studio standard video cameras which are nothing special we have got our error rate down to 10mm," he said.

"The English systems seems like a bit of overkill. We still think we can get away with two cameras.

"I do believe that getting the measurement down to 5mm is do-able and we could probably do better than 10mm with image processing, but we haven't tried it yet."

Bakker also wondered whether measured at 350 frames/second was necessary.

"It's difficult to see them selling many copies of their system for what would be $100,000 at the very least.

"We've spent about $60 on ours. It's almost been a hobby for me.

"We have had some exciting results today. For the first time we have been able to get all our cameras for this calibre of work together. We're tracking the ball, and finding it in frames.

"It's really a case of getting all the gear together and putting it together for a prototype.

"With an industrial partner we could build a system in a year or two," Bakker said.

The New Zealand version was demonstrated to umpires at the recent annual conference of umpires held in Palmerston North. The portability of the New Zealand system impressed participants to the point where one commented that it could possibly be used at club level.

But Bakker's view was: "It depends on what you want to use it for. I felt it was probably more for coaching use for umpires."

Certainly news of the better-funded British effort has not caused him to abandon the work being done here.

He believed such a method of deciding lbws would be accepted in cricket.

"It seems closer than I thought before I heard about the 'Hawk-Eye' system. There seems to be enough incentive for TV channels to be involved. I just wish we could get $500,000," he said.

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