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Thanks to a new ruling by the NFL, cameras at football stadiums will soon go where few cameras have gone before: The locker room.

The NFL is mandating that all teams place cameras in the home locker room for the 2013-14 season.

The league will encourage the teams to show this behind-the-scenes footage on the Jumbotron or video board, so fans at the stadium can see what's going on in the locker room. The organizations themselves will be able to choose what is shown, so no secretive meetings or strategy sessions will become public. Rather, things like pre-game speeches and emotional celebrations can be shared with fans.

This is just one more way that the league is trying to enhance the in-stadium experience. Commissioner Roger Goodell realizes that many fans are choosing to watch games from the comforts of their homes rather than at the stadiums. But by amping up the stadium experience, the NFL may entice some fans back to the stadium.

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NFL, Roger Goodell

Google was recently looking to find some beta testers for its new product, the much-anticipated Google Glass.

So the Internet giant asked interested parties to send in their applications via Twitter, with an explanation as to why they should be among the 8,000 people selected to try out the glasses.

And while Twitter users had all sorts of reasons for why they should be chosen, one of the more unique answers was, “document our road to the Super Bowl!"

That response came from Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder. And it earned Ponder an opportunity to get his hands on the new product before it becomes available to the general public.

@cponder7 You’re invited to join our #glassexplorers program. Woohoo! Make sure to follow us - we’ll DM in the coming weeks.

— Project Glass (@projectglass) March 29, 2013

The glasses cost $1,500, but that shouldn’t be a problem for Ponder (who made $837,000 in 2012). His main concern should probably be trying not to break the glasses while documenting the Vikings' road to the Super Bowl.

Here's a preview of the new lens. Now, imagine these on an NFL quarterback. Pretty cool, huh?

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Christian Ponder, Google, Minnesota Vikings, NFL

With an incredibly cool and futuristic new camera, the Golf Channel is about to redefine the phrase "bird's-eye view."

The Golf Channel has been testing the camera at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, and it is blowing people away. Check it out:

.@golfchannel's new "Hover Fly" camera. Holy cow this thing is awesome. vine.co/v/bpX6pAlz1Yi

— Chad Coleman (@HashtagChad) March 19, 2013

The only problem is that the camera isn't exactly "quiet." So there may be some problems with it shooting this close to a player during an actual tournament. But you figure that if someone can invent a contraption that can fly while filming, they can also figure out a way to silence it.

To learn more about the Hoverfly, or to purchase one yourself, check out the company's website..

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Future, Golf, Outdoors

Thanks to state-of-the-art technology, sports fans have gained several new perspectives into the games they love. When players and coaches are mic'd up, for example, we're allowed a unique understanding of the action on the field.

The one angle we don't have is that of the referee, but even that might be changing soon.

Officials in a rugby league in Australia have been testing out a new earpiece camera that they can wear during matches. The HD video provides spectators as well as league officials a completely new perspective on the sport.

Lyndon Bray, the head of referees for the SANZAR rugby association, says the camera doesn't simply provide spectators a new viewpoint, it can also be used to evaluate referees.

"I'm really cautiously optimistic that this could be a great tool," Bray told Fox Sports. "Both for you guys with the fan – putting the game right into the living room, so to speak, which I think is really important for in today’s world with sport. But secondly for us, from an educational point of view and a coaching tool – I think it’s got great possibilities for us."

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Technology is advancing so quickly that it won't be long before the era of performance-enhancing drugs seems like the athletic Stone Age. Injecting or ingesting chemicals will be considered primitive when athletes will have the ability to have robotic cells powered by software coursing through their veins.

That might sound like science fiction, but such technology is already being developed, and eventually it will change the competitive landscape of sports. Futurist Ray Kurzweil explains how man will mesh with machine:

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Nanotechnology, Ray Kurzweil