Graphic: on the ball

Spot-the-ball promises to be easier than ever with the arrival of a new ball on a Barclays Premier League pitch near you. An evolution of the yellow-and-purple design that has appeared in the top flight each winter since 2004 and its combination of colours and graphics promise to make it the most eye-catching ball yet.

The ball will be used from Saturday until the end of February, aiming to counteract the effects of murky, winter light - and it should make the match-watching experience better for the fans.

Just a marketing gimmick? Do not suggest that to Dr Alan Reichow, the global research director of vision and science for Nike. The ball is his brainchild, part of a mission to enhance performance by transforming how and what sportspeople see.

To create the original, he went to 11 stadiums around Europe, including Highbury, and took more than 140 images from a variety of on-pitch angles, then returned to the United States and analysed Premier League games in slow motion. The conclusion was that, from a player's perspective, the most crucial elements to contrast were the grass and the ball.

Reichow used a spectrophotometer to measure the relationship between grass and light. “Obviously, there were greens, but also a lot of red,” he said. “We just don't see it as much as the green because we aren't as sensitive to that colour. So we needed the key thing that would stand out from green the best. That, with research, came down to the yellow.”

Then came the asymmetric purple stripe graphic, newly designed this season, which produces a flickering effect when the ball spins that contrasts with the yellow and makes it easier to see. “The reason it is not blue is because floodlights are not the same light as sun,” Reichow said.

He has spent three decades devising tests and gadgets to assess and improve athletes' vision across a variety of sports. Reichow's inventions include a green putter to help golfers to align shots and tinted glare- reducing contact lenses. His work with Tiger Woods even included a discussion about whether the world No1 would benefit from a flatter nose to improve his depth perception by enlarging the area in which he can see a ball with both eyes - something especially relevant to cricketers.

Reichow has formed 17 tests to examine depth perception, balance, peripheral vision, co-ordination and concentration on the basis that for elite sportspeople even 20-20 vision may not be good enough. “You can see the letters on a wall in an optician's clearly, but does that mean you can see a ball clearly when it's going at high velocity?” he said.

“It doesn't correlate: some athletes will see it as a larger blur, others as a tighter blur. I want to make them see the tighter blur. You can have an athlete who's the biggest, strongest and fastest but they can't perform at the highest level if the central computer inside their head isn't functioning well with their two cameras - their eyes.”

As top clubs seek to eke out that extra 1 or 2 per cent of performance, vision science is being embraced. Sir Alex Ferguson famously blamed Manchester United's grey away strip for a defeat by Southampton in 1996 and it encouraged the manager to seek regular advice from an eyesight expert.

Reichow works with clubs such as Inter Milan, Barcelona and Arsenal and Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, is enthusiastic, believing that improving peripheral vision will make it easier for his players to perform quick and incisive passing moves.

The new ball will also be used in Spain and Italy and future projects include spin detection and devising training exercises to help to build up visual stamina and acuity. One idea under consideration is restricting players' vision in training so that they will feel as if they have improved sight during a match. And there are still plenty of environmental factors left to analyse in depth, from coloured kits and boots to goalposts. And if any referees are reading, Reichow is happy to talk.