A Hackers Guide to the Robozone

A Hackers guide to the RoboZone

by Wayne Boyle

The purpose of this article is to expose the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of a potential strike zone called by machines. These need to be exposed and counteracted before they are used to affect the integrity of the game and the livelihood of people.?

Wether the system is radar based or video based, there are vulnerabilities in all systems.

The purpose of this article isn’t to encourage people to wreak havoc on a Robo Ump. The purpose is to highlight some of the ways I’ve thought of in order that such a system would have to be made to withstand them. And bear in mind, these are just the ideas I’ve thought of, and likely others will think of more ideas.

The motivations would be as widely varied as the methods employed. Some will be just mischief, boredom, competing teams, competing tech companies, gambling, and others nefarious motivations.

I’m 100% for using this technology in baseball, just not to replace an umpire in a live game. The technology is invaluable for player development and scouting. If we examine the real issue, it’s not that every pitch is in question, it’s that certain pitches in key moments are. So instead of trying to have these systems call every single pitch, they should use it like they use instant replay review. Allow the coaches 1 pitch location review per game, and if the radar and video clearly shows the umpire was in error, then the call is reversed and the coach keeps his 1 review. If the umpire has 3 calls overturned, then they rotate that umpire to the field and rotate a field umpire to home plate.

Spoofing. Without a way to guarantee that the measured strike zone data actually came from the machine, someone could easily place a device in between the machine and the computer. Then, either at their control or automated, they could change close calls to their favor.?

Blocking or spoofing the receiving computer with changed data to swing a game in favor of a certain team. The techniques used would depend upon if the network connection is wired or wireless.

A bored high school student sits at home and decides to have a little fun with a particular baseball team. So he hacks into their network and installs a virus that lets him load a program to mess with the calls while he watches the game. Bottom of the ninth, one team is down by 1 run, He causes walks to be called to load up the bases, then tightens the strike zone further to cause hits to tie the game.

A nefarious sports gambler wants to clean up on some bets, so he hires someone to hack into a particular baseball team to manipulate the results of the game in his favor.

Both the ball location and the particular batter’s strike zone boundaries are equally vulnerable.

One way to reduce this risk is to encode the data, where the encryption key is only known by officials.

Software. There will be software in the computers and machine. Unless it is carefully monitored, there could easily be incompatibilities between them, and there could also be updates that were fixed not being used.

Without making sure that software is kept up to date, you will also have the argument from fans, teams, and commentators that “that would have been a strike in software version 4.1”, etc.

Murphy’s Law. There needs to be multiple machines of each type, so that there is always one on standby. There needs to be a physical switch to make make sure that only one machine is on at a time, or interference problems will occur. Machines will break, and there needs to be a plan for how to deal with that.?

Some cues can be taken from bands that play in live events. They always have backup gear tested and ready to switch over in case of a problem. They also always have technicians on hand to prepare the equipment, test, and deal with various problems that occur.

Calibration. There needs to be a physical accuracy test to ensure machines are calibrated and operating within standards. Those standards need to be clearly defined by officials and checked on a periodic basis.

Aside from Robo Zone issues, what about protecting against using technology for sign stealing? Imagine seeing a product brochure for a fictional product like this. How would that be counteracted ? Maybe change signs every inning, or use coded pitch calls like they do in college ?

Mischief and Interference.

Video based systems would be less vulnerable to fan interference, and RF based systems would more vulnerable. For RF based systems, fans throwing metal particles in the air near the general area of home plate. Chaff is typically metal strips or coated fibers, but has to move quickly or else the radar can detect that it’s not the ball.

Fans throwing corner reflectors, which are different than metal strips, they are many-sided objects that re-radiate radar energy mostly back toward its source..??

For example, I’ve seen recently where using metal rings for command training caused the Doppler radar to sometimes report no spin axis, and sometimes flipped the reported spin axis 180 degrees. So perhaps fans throwing metal rings of about 2ft diameter in the air in line with the radar unit and home plate would cause issues.

Intentional or unintentional RF interference, such as radar jammers, etc. What if fans from a team show up with simple frequency transmitters, and turn them on at times to benefit their team? Or just to mess with the game ?

Spot jamming by constantly focusing all of the jammer power on a single frequency, which severely degrades the ability to track on the jammed frequency.

Imagine seeing an ad for a fictitious product like the one below. It could certainly be made. How would officials counter this type of system to ensure the integrity of the game?

Sign Sleuth

Detector unit connects in-line with the center field camera video feed. Contains full video processing software that detects the catcher’s hand signals, and the pitch trajectory. Decodes the hand signals based on the pitch trajectory, and transmits the results to the remote unit. Usually takes about 5 pitches to decode the Pitcher/Catcher signals. Can work even faster if Trackman or Hawkeye data is combined.

The remote unit, about the size of a half dollar,? contains a small buzzer that vibrates the results. For example, 1 buzz for Fastball, 2 buzzes for breaking ball, etc. The remote unit can be up to 1,000ft from the detector unit.

No setup or programming is required to use the system. Can be set up and used by one person, with no one else knowing. Although you can if you want program the unit to buzz more detailed pitch types.

While it wouldn’t be vulnerable to something like PitchCom using video, it could hack PitchCom much like the RF hacking described earlier. Encryption would help alleviate some methods provided it’s secure. How would MLB counteract such a fictitious product ? The technology is there to do it, after all , “thoughts become things”.

Wayne Boyle is the founder of Motile Media Inc. , makers of Pitchgrader advanced 3D software for game analysis, and Command Trakker smart target.