The present application claims priority to United Kingdom Patent Application No. 2200450.1, filed Jan. 14, 2022, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to a method, computer program, apparatus and system.
The “background” description provided is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in the background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Object tracking technology is often employed during sporting events to track the position of objects in the events, such as the sports players. This allows information to be collected that indicates player movement, for example, which can then be used for various purposes such as live commentary, betting, post-game analysis of player technique, or the like. Tracking the position of the ball in a sporting event also allows information to be collected for applications such as electronic line calling, for example.
Storing all information collected continuously throughout an entire sporting event requires a significant amount of power and storage space. In addition, information collected at times when the sport is not being played is not useful as it does not relate to the sport. It is therefore desirable to only store information that is collected during the play of the sport to improve efficiency. This is usually achieved by an operator manually indicating that the play of the sport is starting (by pressing a button, for example), which sends an instruction to start storing the information to a device or system configured to store the information. Indicating the timeframe during which the sport is being played is also used to identify the period in which tracking software should apply appropriate adjudication. However, manually indicating that the play of the sport is starting is not only inconvenient for the operator but is also unreliable due to the risk of human error. For example, the operator may react slowly to the start of play, or forget to indicate that play of the sport is starting entirely.
It is an aim of the present disclosure to address the above problems.
The present disclosure is defined by the claims.
Non-limiting embodiments and advantages of the present disclosure will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the drawings.
In embodiments depicted in
Position information that relates to a certain object indicates the real-world position of the object within the area imaged by the camera system 204. For each image captured, any suitable image processing technique known in the art is used to detect an object in the image and identify its position within the image. Since the cameras in the camera system 204 are positioned at different locations surrounding the court 200, images captured by each camera show the detected object from different angles. The image analysis therefore comprises comparing the position of the object within each image to identify the real-world position of the object on the court 200.
In some embodiments, the position information comprises further information about the objects. For example, the image analysis may not only detect an object in an image but additionally identify the type of object, such as a person or a sporting projectile. In further embodiments, the position information comprises information indicating a relative distance between two objects, a velocity of an object, an acceleration of an object, pose information indicating a pose of an object identified as a person, or the like. This is discussed in more detail in relation to
Techniques for obtaining position information other than those described above may be implemented as part of the present disclosure. For example, position information may be determined from the analysis of other types of information relating to the objects 201, 202 and 203, such as audio information corresponding to audio recorded at the tennis court 200. In other embodiments, the objects are provided with devices (for example, players may be provided with wearable devices) that identify their positions using global positioning technology or the like. Position information determined from the analysis of other types of information relating to the objects 201, 202 and 203 is provided directly or indirectly to the information processing device 100 in the same manner as described above.
Having obtained position information relating to an object in the sporting event, the information processing device 100 then performs a determination process to determine whether a start event has occurred in the sporting event. A start event is an event that indicates a start of play of the sport. For example, in a tennis match a start event may be defined as a tennis serve that starts a tennis game. In another example, in a cricket match, a start event may be defined as a bowler propelling a cricket ball from one end of the pitch towards the wicket at the other end. However, the present disclosure is not limited in this regard and a start event may be any event that indicates a start of play of the sport. The start event may occur directly before the start of play (e.g. a referee blowing a whistle, the approach of a player to a particular position on a sports pitch, or the like), or comprise an event that occurs directly after the start of play. For example, the entirety of a serve action in tennis may be the start event, including the follow-through motion of the serving player after they have hit the tennis ball. A start of play may be the start of the whole sporting event, the start of a particular subsection of play within the sporting event (e.g. a tennis game within a tennis match) or the resumed play of the sport after it has been temporarily paused (for example, in the event where a referee pauses the play of the sport).
In the embodiments depicted in
In table 500, the position information further comprises information indicating the velocity of each object at the time depicted in
It can be seen from table 500 that, in addition to indicating the real-world position of an object, the position information may comprise several types of further information about the object. However, the present disclosure is not limited in this regard and in other embodiments the position information comprises other types of information about an object than what is in table 500. For example, the position information may comprise pose information that indicates the pose of an object identified to be a person. Pose information may indicate the position of the person’s limbs, the position of their centre of mass, the direction they are facing, or the like. In some embodiments, various known poses are classified into one of several predetermined categories associated with certain actions in the sport (e.g. ‘walking’, ‘running’, ‘swinging a tennis racket’ or the like). In these embodiments the pose information can therefore indicate whether a player’s pose falls into one of these predetermined categories.
Having obtained position information relating to objects 201, 202 and 203 in the tennis match depicted in
The conditions are related to information about the position of objects in a sporting event, and the information processing device 100 determines whether each condition is met based on the obtained position information. For example, a condition may be that ‘an object that is identified to be a tennis ball is located within a predetermined area’. Position information relating to an object that indicates the type of object (indicating whether it is a tennis ball) and a region of the sports area within which it is located (indicating whether it falls within the predetermined area) may therefore be used to determine whether this condition is met.
The position information in table 500 relates to objects 201, 202 and 203 at a particular point in time. However, the present disclosure is not limited in this regard and in other embodiments the information processing device 100 records position information associated with more than one time, such as shown in
It may be determined that the start event has occurred when a predetermined number of the associated conditions are met. For example, if the number of associated conditions met exceeds a predetermined threshold, it may be determined that the start event has occurred. However, the present disclosure is not limited in this regard and it may be determined that the start event has occurred in various other circumstances. For example, in some embodiments there is more than one combination of particular conditions that, when met, indicate that the start event has occurred. This allows the device 100 to take into account conditions which are met when a start event has occurred but which can also be met in other scenarios, and so do not necessarily prove that the start event has occurred on their own.
In embodiments depicted in
In some embodiments, identifying that a further combination of conditions is met can indicate that the start event has occurred. For example, a second combination of conditions that must be met may be the condition ‘two objects identified to be tennis players have been positioned more than 23 m apart for the last 3 seconds’, the condition ‘an object identified to be a tennis ball has been positioned less than 1 m from an object identified to be a tennis player for the last 3 seconds’ and the condition ‘the horizontal velocity of all detected objects has been zero for the last 10 ms’. A third combination of conditions that must be met may be the condition ‘two objects identified to be tennis players have been positioned more than 23 m apart for the last 3 seconds’, the condition ‘an object identified to be a tennis player has a ‘serving’ pose’ and the condition ‘another object identified to be a tennis player has a ‘receiving’ pose’. In this example, the ‘serving’ and ‘receiving’ poses are predefined and indicate that a player is about to perform a tennis serve and receive a tennis serve respectively.
The ability to determine whether a start event has occurred based on more than one combination of conditions allows the information processing device 100 to determine whether a start event has occurred in situations where the obtained position information is not sufficient to determine whether all possible conditions are met. For example, having obtained the position information shown in table 500, the information processing device 100 would not be able to determine whether the second and third combinations described above are met, since this position information does not comprise pose information and only corresponds to one point in time. The information processing device 100 would, however, be able to determine that the first combination described is met and successfully determine that the start event has occurred. In another example, in embodiments where the information processing device 100 only obtains position information relating to the players 201 and 202 but not the ball 203 it is still able to determine whether a start event has occurred if one of the combination of conditions only comprises conditions relating to the players.
If the information processing device 100 determines that a start event has occurred based on the obtained position information, the information processing device 100 generates an instruction to start storing the obtained position information. The instruction may be any suitable type of electronic instruction known in the art that can, when executed, cause a device or devices to store electronic information. In some embodiments the information processing device 100 executes this instruction itself and stores the position information in an internal or external storage medium. However, the disclosure is not limited in this regard and in other embodiments the information processing device 100 sends the instruction to an external device via a communication link. The external device may be any device capable of receiving electronic information. For example, the external device may be a remote server which stores the image representation data and/or sends it to a further device. In another example, the external device may be a user device such as a smart phone. The communication link may be any suitable type of communication link known in the art (for example, a wireless or wired connection) over which electronic information can be sent by the communication interface 101 of the information processing device 100.
In some embodiments, the information processing device 100 additionally sends the obtained position information to the external device. In embodiments where the information processing device 100 performs image analysis on received image information to obtain the position information, for example, it is beneficial for the information processing device 100 to send the position information to the external device so that the external device does not need to perform image analysis itself. However, the disclosure is not limited in this regard and in other embodiments the information processing device 100 sends the instruction only. In some of these embodiments, the external device receives the position information from another device such as the routing device 205. In another example, the external device may be the routing device 205.
In some embodiments, having determined that a start event has occurred, the information processing device 100 is configured to perform additional processing on the position information. For example, in some embodiments where the information processing device 100 determines that a start event has occurred and wherein the start event is defined as the preparation for a tennis serve in a tennis match, the information processing device 100 performs additional processing to determine which service box in the tennis court the serve will be directed towards.
The ability to determine that the play of the sport has started and send an instruction to start storing position information allows information to be stored only when the information is collected during the play of the sport. Specifically, performing the determination automatically without the need of an operator allows this to be achieved more reliably, as it does not include the risk of human error. In further embodiments of the disclosure, reliability can be further improved by additionally determining that the play of the sport has stopped and sending an instruction to stop storing position information. In these embodiments, the information processing device 100 obtains further position information relating to an object in the sporting event and then performs a second determination process to determine whether a stop event has occurred. A stop event is an event that indicates a stop of play of the sport. For example, in a tennis match a stop event may be defined as an event where the tennis ball enters an area outside the area of play (for example, behind the baseline). In a cricket match, the stop event may be defined as an event indicated by the umpire notifying the score to the scorer using a recognised hand signal, or by the scorer entering the score into the scoring system. However, the present disclosure is not limited in this regard and a stop event may be any event that indicates a stop of play of the sport. Similarly to a start event, a stop event may occur directly before the stop of play (e.g. a referee blowing a whistle, the approach of a sporting projectile to a particular position on a sports pitch, or the like), or comprise an event that occurs directly after the stop of play (e.g. an event in which all the players of the sport suddenly stop moving). A stop of play may be the end of the whole sporting event, the end of a particular subsection of play within the sporting event (e.g. a tennis game within a tennis match) or a temporary stop of the sport (for example, in the event where a referee pauses the play of the sport).
In embodiments depicted in
In some embodiments, the information processing device 100 is configured to determine whether more than one type of stop event has occurred. For example, the information processing device 100 may determine that a first stop event has occurred when a first number of conditions associated with the first stop event are met and determine that a second stop event has occurred when a second number of conditions associated with the second stop event are met. This allows the device to identify when the play of the sport has stopped under different circumstances. For example, in some embodiments a first type of stop event in a tennis match may be an event where the ball hits the net, and a second type of stop event may be where the ball is mis-hit into the stands. The information processing device 100 may determine that the second stop event has occurred when the condition ‘the position of the ball is outside the sporting area’ is met.
If the information processing device 100 determines that a stop event has occurred based on the obtained position information, the information processing device 100 generates an instruction to stop storing the obtained position information. The instruction may be any suitable type of electronic instruction known in the art that can, when executed, cause a device or devices to stop storing electronic information. In some embodiments the information processing device 100 executes this instruction itself and stores the position information in an internal or external storage medium. However, the disclosure is not limited in this regard and in other embodiments the information processing device 100 sends the instruction to the external device discussed above via a communication link. The communication link may be any suitable type of communication link known in the art (for example, a wireless or wired connection) over which electronic information can be sent by the communication interface 101 of the information processing device 100.
Numerous modifications and variations of the present disclosure are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the disclosure may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.
In so far as embodiments of the disclosure have been described as being implemented, at least in part, by software-controlled data processing apparatus, it will be appreciated that a non-transitory machine-readable medium carrying such software, such as an optical disk, a magnetic disk, semiconductor memory or the like, is also considered to represent an embodiment of the present disclosure.
It will be appreciated that the above description for clarity has described embodiments with reference to different functional units, circuitry and/or processors. However, it will be apparent that any suitable distribution of functionality between different functional units, circuitry and/or processors may be used without detracting from the embodiments.
Described embodiments may be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. Described embodiments may optionally be implemented at least partly as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors. The elements and components of any embodiment may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the disclosed embodiments may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units, circuitry and/or processors.
Although the present disclosure has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Additionally, although a feature may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, one skilled in the art would recognize that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in any manner suitable to implement the technique.
Embodiments of the disclosure are provided in the following numbered clauses:
1) A method, comprising:
2) A method according to clause 1, wherein the information comprises position information relating to the object.
3) A method according to clause 1, wherein the object is a sporting projectile in the sporting event.
4) A method according to clause 1, wherein the object is a player in the sporting event.
5) A method according to clause 4, wherein the information comprises pose information that indicates the pose of the player.
6) A method according to any preceding clause, wherein the information comprises information that indicates the position of the object relative to a sports area where the sporting event is being played.
7) A method according to any preceding clause, wherein the information comprises information that indicates the position of the object relative to another object in the sporting event.
8) A method according to any preceding clause, wherein the information comprises information that indicates the velocity or acceleration of the object.
9) A method according to any preceding clause, wherein the method further comprises sending the instruction to another device.
10) A method according to any preceding clause, wherein the sporting event is a tennis match.
11) A method according to clause 10, wherein the method further comprises:
12) A method according to any preceding clause, wherein the method further comprises:
13) A method according to clause 12, wherein the second information comprises position information relating to the position of the second object.
14) A method according to clause 12, wherein the method further comprises sending the second instruction to another device.
15) A computer program comprising computer readable software, which when loaded onto a computer configures the computer to perform a method according to any preceding clause.
16) An apparatus comprising circuitry configured to:
17) An apparatus according to clause 16, wherein the information comprises position information relating to the position of the object.
18) A system comprising:
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2200450.1 | Jan 2022 | GB | national |