Elite athletes with “super-vision” could one day be identified using a test being developed by scientists at the University of Bradford.
Researchers are working on a system that focuses on the uncanny ability of some top cricketers, footballers and tennis players to target and track a moving ball.
Experts believe it is to do with a combination of peripheral vision and the brain’s ability to process motion.
To some extent the skill can be learned - but certain individuals appear to have it naturally.
The new test – which involves screen tasks and catching tennis balls fired from a machine – could make it possible to spot the next Andy Murray or Graham Gooch.
Brendan Barrett, a professor from the University of Bradford’s School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, said: “Imagine if you had a laboratory test you could run on an individual.
“It could help you decide the best position for a player to be in.
“You might even be able to inform the coach who should stay or leave the squad, or identify young players with the most promise.
“Maybe you could squeeze out an extra 1% or 2% in performance that can be translated to the field.
“We’re not there at the moment but that’s the end point of the research we’re doing.”
Results from a study of 100 volunteers, including England and Wales Cricket Board players, and members of the women’s Ashes cricket team and Huddersfield Giants rugby league squad, are expected within the next year.
The participants, some of whom were non-sporty members of the public, had to undergo a battery of visual tests and take on the cricket ball machine, which hurled balls a distance of eight metres for them to catch.
But there was a “catch”.
Each volunteer had to wear special goggles that shut off the wearer’s vision at a certain moment after the ball was fired.
Even unable to see a quarter of a ball’s path through the air, most people were able to catch the ball.
As less of the trajectory was made visible, more catches were dropped – but most cricketers displayed an “amazing ability” to keep catching the ball, Prof Barrett said.
A key screen test involved being shown a brief flash of an image containing a number of dots, then trying to estimate how many dots there were.
With each repeat of the test the number of dots was increased, making the task more difficult.
“Some people are very good at getting the number of dots right, even when you get up to nine or 10,” said Barrett, who demonstrated the machine at the British Science Festival, taking place at the University of Bradford.
“That’s a test not of speed of response but of visual processing.”
The idea is to combine the catching and screen tests to develop a method of identifying individuals with special ability.
Ball-tracking skills may be part of our evolutionary heritage, Barrett said.
“When you think about hunting, if something is moving and you’re trying to strike it with an arrow, you have to make a judgement of when to let the arrow fly,” he said.
“There are plenty of examples from the past and in the natural world where these kind of skills are applicable.”