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MLB will test its robot umpire system at the next All-Star Game

MLB's ABS challenge system will let players in the All-Star Game challenge the calls of human umpires.

The automated ball-strike (ABS) system has been around for years in one form or another, but relying on a computer's judgement of a pitch has yet to become a permanent fixture of major league play. The current version of ABS uses Hawk-Eye, a computer vision system developed by Sony, to monitor the "exact location of the pitch relative to the batter’s strike zone," according to MLB. MLB hasn't announced official plans to implement the ABS challenge system during the normal baseball season, but the continued tests seem like a good indication that it could happen at some point.

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