Snickometer

A Snickometer, commonly known as Snicko, is used in televising cricket to graphically analyse sound and video, and show, purportedly, whether a fine noise, or snick, occurs as ball passes bat. It was invented by English Computer Scientist, Allan Plaskett, in the mid-1990s. Plaskett, brother of chess Grandmaster James Plaskett, also invented another device for aiding television commentary on cricket: Flightpath, and is the author of 'H-Trauma: The General Theory of Evil', a work in the field of psychoanalysis.

The Snickometer is often used in a slow motion television replay to determine if the cricket ball touched the cricket bat on the way through to the wicketkeeper. The commentators will listen and view the shape of the recorded soundwave. If there is a sound of leather on willow, which is usually a short sharp sound in synchrony with the ball passing the bat, then the ball has touched the bat. Other sounds such as the ball hitting the batsman's pads, or the bat hitting the pitch, and so on, tend to have a fatter shape on the sound form.

If, in the umpire's opinion, this is the case, and the ball was a legal delivery that was caught before touching the ground, then the batsmen is given out by the umpire. For more information see laws of cricket.

Note that the umpire does not have the benefit of the snickometer, and must instead rely on his senses of sight and hearing, as well as his judgement.