Some baseball fans want robot umpires, and they make a pretty compelling case

Half the fun of baseball is yelling at the umpire when you disagree with his calls of balls versus strikes. In fact, baseball games would be quiet places without fans hollering “What are you, blind?” after every swing.

Now some fans and even players are calling for a new way to solve the problem of bad umpire calls–give them a little help from machines. There’s a growing movement, led by Chicago Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist, to turn those baseball rulings over to software.

Technology Review lays out a pretty compelling case, noting that the tennis world has managed to embrace robot judges–or at least robot-assisted judges–through the “Hawk-Eye” program, which has final say when it comes to deciding whether a ball is in or out. Perhaps baseball will be next, although it would ruin the fun of hollering at the umpire, since robots don’t really care if you yell at them.

Read the full story here.