No sensors - Curling resorts to honor system

Because of malfunctions with its electronic violation detection technology, curling at the Beijing Olympics is resorting to the «honor system.»

It's known as a low-fi sport: rocks sliding down the ice, brooms sweeping in front of them to alter their speed and direction. But curling was given a hi-tech upgrade over the last dozen years thanks to «Eye on the Hog» technology: a sensor system that determines if a stone was released prior to the red «hog line,» ensuring its legality.

Per the World Curling Federation Rules of Curling and Rules of Competition, a stone must be clearly released from the hand before it reaches the hog line at the delivery end. If the player fails to do so, the stone is immediately removed from play by the delivering team for a violation.

What the «Eye on the Hog» did was create a circuit between the bare hand of a curler and a magnetic strip under the ice. If the hand is released from the handle before the line, then green lights flash to indicate a legal throw. If any part of the hand is still touching the handle when it crosses the line, red lights will turn on to signal a violation.

The issue at the Beijing Games: getting the stones to operate properly.

According to Team Canada, this system has been used since 2004, but the equipment at the Beijing Games was new. The technical difficulties have impacted the time teams have to throw and have interrupted their routines. The system is activated when the rock is tilted for cleaning. Some curlers were having trouble getting their rocks to activate.

USA Curling tells ESPN that the batteries within the stones were not staying in place, causing delays in games when a player would try to «set» the rock while getting ready to throw in the hack. If the