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Public Understanding of Science
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You cannot be serious! Public understanding of technology with special reference to "Hawk-Eye"

Harry Collins

Centre for the Study of Knowledge Expertise and Science (KES) at Cardiff University, CollinsHM{at}cf.ac.uk

Robert Evans

Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WT, UK, EvansRJ1{at}Cardiff.ac.uk

Public understanding of science, though it approaches the specialist knowledge of experts only in rare circumstances, can be enhanced more broadly in respect of the processes of science and technology. The public understanding of measurement errors and confidence intervals could be enhanced if "sports decision aids," such as the Hawk-Eye system, were to present their results in a different way. There is a danger that Hawk-Eye as used could inadvertently cause naïve viewers to overestimate the ability of technological devices to resolve disagreement among humans because measurement errors are not made salient. For example, virtual reconstructions can easily be taken to show "exactly what really happened." Suggestions are made for how confidence levels might be measured and represented and "health warnings" attached to reconstructions. A general principle for the use of sports decision aids is put forward. A set of open questions about Hawk-Eye is presented which, if answered, could help inform discussions of its use and accuracy.

Key Words: sports decision aids • Hawk-Eye • public understanding of technology • simulations • cricket • tennis.

This version was published on July 1, 2008

Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 17, No. 3, 283-308 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0963662508093370
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