Can AI take over football commentary?

A ball flies over the goal line: "What a goal!" But this goal isn't scored in an professional football stadium in the Premier League. It comes on a table-football table in a lab at the University of Twente. A webcam hangs above the table, and red and blue LED strips flash along with the play. The voice cheering it on belongs to an AI. So can a computer handle the commentary on the real thing too?

All that traffic is exactly what the researchers study. They try, for instance, to work out from the outside which devices someone has at home. "A table-football table like this really captures the imagination," says Max Pijnappel, the lab's manager. "And at the same time it shows what we're working on: everyday objects that are packed with sensors and send out data all day long."