Let's track footballers' heart rates!!

I don't follow football - or any sports - which made me an unusual choice for this particular pitch. Let's wind back the clock a decade...

A relatively unknown hardware company has just released one of the first "fitness trackers" which can measure a wearer's physiology. As well as counting steps, it now has the ability to measure heart-rate and a bunch of other things. They think that athletes and exercisers will be interested in knowing these vital statistics. But they're wondering if there's another market they've missed.

My employer's pitch is simple - livestream the cardiac rhythms of football players back to their coaches. If Ted Lasso can see that Jamie Tartt is faltering, substitute him.

In a sense, it is no different than the tech that's used in Formula 1 racing. Team engineers can see the motor's exact RPM, temperature, and wear. Every facet of the car's performance is analysed to extract marginal gains in performance. And, incidentally, to prevent catastrophe.

With advances in technology, it would be possible to measure a player's oxygen saturation, their alertness, and lactic acid build up. Having complete understanding of athletes' health would be a literal game-changer.

We could go even further. How about we give that data to the TV broadcasters? How does it enhance your experience of the game if you can see the beats-per-minute of the striker and goalkeeper in a penalty shootout?

Our pitch-deck had a slightly more professionally produced version of this graphic:

Would bookmakers like to know that the star player had exhausted themselves? Would stats nerds like to know who ran the furthest? Would players like to scream abuse at the lazy players?

In the end, the pitch failed on three counts:

1. Battery power just wasn't good enough to continually transmit real-time data across a football pitch. Not without making the device much bulkier and heavier.
2. Worries about eavesdropping. Unless the signals were extremely well encrypted (not likely given the primitive technology and power requirements) then the opposition team could gather valuable insights on their rivals.
3. Player privacy. Professional athletes are humans. They want (and deserve) privacy. Perhaps they have a minor heart condition that they don't want the world knowing about?

I genuinely don't know enough about sports or the psychology of fans to know if this would have been successful. All the customer research seemed to think that it would have been a big hit with gamblers. I daresay with all the other augmented reality stats which currently deface the screen it would have fitted right in.

But, to most people, it felt needlessly invasive. There's still a huge "ick factor" around seeing other people's medical information. Players, we were told, just wouldn't go for it.

As the technology matures, I can't help wondering how long it is before it becomes ubiquitous. Would we demand politicians display their galvanic skin response so we can tell if they're lying? Should all first dates mandate arousal detectors to ensure compatibility? Will your employer let you take a loo break only if you can prove that you're bursting?

Strange times ahead...