Patent Application
20150018988
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The present invention relates to a system and method for performance evaluation in sports. More specifically it is directed to a computer implemented system and method for evaluation of performance of a player in an individual or team sport based on the combined effect of a plurality of attributes comprising of physical, mental, social and sport related information.
It is vital for every player, whether engaged in an individual or team sport to ameliorate his or her performance in a highly competitive sport environment. Aspiring players continuously endeavor to upgrade their performances by improving their sporting skills through means such as rigorous workouts, proper nutritional diet, physical fitness, training and coaching. Training modules are often customized to the needs of individual players. In this background, what is needed is to understand the current level of performance of not only the individual player or the team, but also different perspectives related to their physical and mental makeup as well as various external factors related to the environment in which they operate, since these have a crucial role in the design of the overall training programme to help the players to excel in their performance.
The need to assess the performance of sports persons is felt by sports coaches, exercise instructors, sports management professionals who wish to select upcoming players for their marketing and branding campaigns and people interested in fantasy sports. Additionally, aspiring sportspersons as well as numerous fans also feel the need to assess and compare the performance of a sports person with respect to his peers, contemporaries and sometimes even with non-contemporaries.
The performance of a player depends on numerous attributes including present physical fitness, mental and psychological condition, events in personal and public life, relations with peers, teammates and coaches and the sports environment. While every player or team wants to improve his or their current performance level and predict future prospects, there is currently a lack of performance evaluation methods, which entail a comprehensive performance evaluation by taking into account different parameters and providing a quantifiable value that can help in benchmarking and analysis.
There are different types of method and systems for evaluation of the athlete performance present in prior art, but these distinctly differ from the invention described in this patent application. The existing performance evaluation methods are solely based on past historical performances, and do not disclose true performance potential of an individual player or a team. Further these methods cannot be used by ordinary persons who would like to realistically assess the present and future performance level of his or her favorite player or team in quantifiable terms.
The methods known in prior art for evaluating player performance in a team sport also fail to account for attributes related to the performance of other players in a team which have a bearing on the performance of an individual player.
Most of today's methods make use of adapted technologies to measure an athlete's different activities using sensing devices. Such devices need to be physically attached or mounted to the athlete while performing the sport and indicates only a measure of the physical activity without assessing any other parameter that has the potential to affect a player's performance.
Below are given some prior art references, U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,592, issued on 26 Dec. 1995, titled, “METHOD OF SIMULTANEOUSLY ANALYZING A PLURALITY OF PERFORMANCE STATISTICS OF AN ATHLETE” describes performance characteristics of an athlete by defining a two-dimensional graph as a rectangular performance grid.
US patent application no. 2008/0015819 filed on 13 Jun., 2007, titled “ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE DATA SYSTEM AND METHOD” describes an athletic field data collection system for obtaining athletic performance data by taking into consideration only the on field activity of athletes and overlooking other factors.
US patent application no. 2010/0184564, filed on 22 Jul., 2010, titled “ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE MONITORING SYSTEMS AND METHODS IN A TEAM SPORTS ENVIRONMENT” describes systems and methods for monitoring player performance during athletic activities (e.g., during a game, a practice session, a workout, etc.), including team oriented athletic activities by taking into consideration only athlete's activity during a game, practice sessions, workout.
US patent application no. 2010/0129780, filed on 14 Sep., 2009, titled “ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE RATING SYSTEM” invention relates to athletic ratings and related performance measuring systems for use primarily with athletic activities such as training and evaluating athletes by comparing activity of two athletes.
Since the purpose and methodology of all the above inventions that are part of prior art do not provide for a system and method for comprehensively evaluating the player performance in a detailed manner using a wide range spectrum of information and their combined effect in quantifiable terms; accordingly, improvements are needed in the existing methods and structures to fulfill the above need. The present invention strives to address this need.
The present invention offers a computer-implemented performance evaluation system and method considering the present state of an individual sportsperson or his or her team, and by taking into account the combined effect of different attributes such as those related to physical, mental, personal, social, sports factors on the performance of a player.
The present invention is a computer implemented system and method of performance evaluation of an individual player a team in an individual or team sport or athletic activity. The present invention considers the combined effect of information pertaining to a plurality of attributes based on the physical, mental, psychological, personal, sport environment to determine a quantifiable and measurable performance level.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for measuring and evaluating the performance of an individual or team in a sport in quantifiable terms based on the combined effect of a plurality of attributes including but not limited to physical, mental, psychological, personal, social and sport related to factors.
Another object of the present invention is to consider the performance of other players in a team which can affect the performance of an individual player in a team sport.
Another object of the present invention is to compare the performance of an individual or a team's performance in a sport with other peers, competitors, contemporaries and non-contemporaries.
A further object of the present invention is to realistically predict the future prospects and performance of an individual athlete or a team in the respective sport.
A still further object of the present invention is to determine the areas which need to be specially focused on to improve the performance of an individual athlete or a team in the respective sport.
Again another object of the present invention is to assess if changing any of the attributes, such as different playing positions, is likely to have an impact on the performance level of a player. Also an object is to compare the effect of the player's current playing position with different playing positions, in the context of performance and position of other team members, to thereby developing useful sport strategies.
These objects are achieved by providing a system in accordance with the present invention for evaluating the performance of an individual player or team. A system for using a computer for assessing a player's performance level comprises of:
a memory device resident in the computer, and
a processor disposed in communication with the memory device, the processor configured to:
In accordance with the present invention, a method for using a computer for assessing a player's performance level comprises of:
These and other objects of the present invention are further elaborated in the detailed description of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention and not as to limit the scope of the invention. Applying or modifying the disclosed invention in a different manner can attain many other beneficial results or modifying the invention as will be described. Accordingly, referring to the following drawings and detailed description may have a complete understanding of the invention.
Various examples will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the following drawings, in which:
As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein. However, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of an invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. Therefore, specific functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for the claims and/or as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.
In describing and claiming present invention the following terminologies will be used and should construed to have the meaning described as follows:
User: A person interested in assessing the performance level of a player.
Expert user: A qualified professional in a given sport or game, possessing a credible knowledge, experience or expertise in the sport or game, or having access to information related to the sport or game based on historic data.
Player: An individual or team engaged in a sport, game, physical, mental or athletic activity, whose performance level is to be assessed. The terms “player”, “athlete”, “sportsperson”, “team” are used interchangeably and synonymously in the present context and should be construed to have the same meaning.
Sport: Any sport, game, physical, mental or athletic activity that can be played by an individual or a team.
Player Performance Level: Also referred to as PPL, this denotes the degree of skills or achievement by a player in a given sport.
PPL value: PPL value is a quantifiable and measurable value or score computed on the basis of the combined effect of a plurality of attributes that govern the player performance level.
Business rule: Business rule is a mathematical and/or logical expression representing the relation between the combined the effect of a plurality of attributes, the weightage accorded to the plurality of attributes and the PPL value of a player.
Physical Attributes: Physical attributes represent the physical characteristics of a player, including but not limited to height, weight, age, injuries, medical history, specialized skills.
Mental Attributes: Mental attributes represent the mental characteristics of a player, including but not limited to discipline, personality traits, optimism, perseverance, ambition, training focus and goal orientation.
Social Attributes: Social attributes represent various social factors, including but not limited to personal factors, family issues, financial status, news, publicity, controversies, drug or crime related issues.
Sport Attributes: Sport attributes represent various sport related factors, including but not limited to the level of the player, past records, playing position, relationship shared with coach and/or teammates, PPL value of other teammates, time spent in travel and touring, training
Top Performing Player: A top performing player is a player initially identified by the expert user based on his domain knowledge and/or experience and whose values for the plurality of attributes comprise the first dataset (subsequently described). The PPL values corresponding to a top performing player may change over time. Also it is possible that a better performing player or a player with higher PPL values replaces a previous ‘top performing player’ periodically.
First Dataset: The values corresponding to a plurality of attributes for at least one top performing player, and the weightage to be assigned to said plurality of attributes as provided by the expert user. This is also referred to as “Base Value”.
Second dataset: The values corresponding to a plurality of attributes for the player, as provided by the user.
PPL System: A system comprising of several input and output hardware components connected through a public communication network such as the internet, or other network architectures such as a wireless network or a private network to connect and facilitate data transfer between the input hardware components, output hardware components and the system in accordance with present invention.
In accordance with the present invention, the embodiments of the system and method described may be implemented in either hardware or software, or a combination of both. In some situations, embodiments may be implemented in one or more computer programs executing on one or more programmable computing devices that comprise of at least one processor, a memory device (including in some cases volatile and non-volatile memory and/or data storage elements), at least one input device and at least one output device.
In some embodiments, each program may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming and/or scripting language to communicate with a computer system. However the programs may be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language.
In some embodiments, the systems and methods as described herein may also be implemented as non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured with a computer program, wherein the storage medium so configured causes a computer to operate in a specific and predefined manner to perform at least some of the functions described herein.
The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of particular applications of the invention and their requirements. The present invention can be configured as follows.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
In an alternate embodiment, at least two or more first dataset values for a plurality of top performing players is provided, such that a range of PPL values or an average PPL value may be generated.
In another alternate embodiment, the first dataset values corresponding to a minimum threshold performance by a player is also input by the expert user. At step 305, a business rule is created by the expert user. This business rule varies from one sport to another. Further the business rule represents a mathematical and/or logical expression associating the plurality of attributes with a PPL value. At step 307, a user registers in the PPL system. At step 309, the user inputs second dataset corresponding to a player. At step 311, a PPL value is computed for the second dataset for the player based on the business rule. At step 313, the PPL value is displayed as per preselected user choice.
Referring to
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a system for using a computer for assessing a player's performance level comprises of:
a memory device resident in the computer, and
a processor disposed in communication with the memory device, the processor configured to:
In accordance with the present invention, a method for using a computer for assessing a player's performance level comprises of:
In one embodiment of the present invention, the player whose PPL value is to be computed is an individual player playing an individual sport. In another embodiment, the player whose PPL value is to be computed is an individual player playing a team sport. In yet another embodiment, the player whose PPL value is to be computed is a team playing a team sport. Thus the present invention can be used to determine the PPL value for an individual player or a team.
In another embodiment of the present invention the first dataset filled by an expert user is based on historic data of top performing players from a preselected duration, such as last ten years, or last one year or last six months. The values for first dataset are periodically updated in the PPL system by expert users.
In another embodiment of the present invention the plurality of attributes pertain to but are not limited to physical, mental, psychological, personal, social, or sport related attributes such as: age, weight, height, sex, physical injury, medical issues, personality trait, moods, temper, relations with other individual players or relations with fellow teammates, relations with coaches, or media controversies, family background, financial status, marital status, qualification, drug or criminal issues, current playing position in the team, retired or active in major tournament, performance in last game, performance level of other team members, time spent in travel and touring, legal issues, team changing frequency, current level in the game e.g. whether it is high school level or college level or professional level, the no. of national or international tours, no. of tournaments played, no. of injured team member, performance in last game, total wins in the current season, total home wins, or total road wins, years of professional experience of coach, changes in the head coach of the team or contract dispute issues.
In another embodiment of the present invention, values for first dataset vary as per different playing positions of the players in the team.
The present invention can be used for evaluating the PPL value of an individual sportsperson or a team of players. Further thus invention can be used for any type of sport, game, physical or athletic activity played at any level, i.e. professional, recreational, amateur, school level.
The invention can be used by an individual player or team interested in its own performance evaluation or other teams' performance evaluation or individual player's performance evaluation.
The user may be any ordinary person who is interested in tracking his or her favorite athletes' or teams' performance level, or wants to play virtual game choosing best performing player or best performing team or wants to compare performances of two players who are not contemporaries.
The user may also be sport recruiter or sport agent who is interested in to sign up a player for future contracts based on his future performance potential.
In an embodiment of the present invention the values for first dataset may correspond to two datasets, determined by taking into consideration performances of top player in that sport for a predetermined duration in the past, and the worst performances of a player in that sport for a predetermined duration in the past. Thus the first dataset comprises data values pertaining to a plurality of attributes for at least two players mapping to a range of maximum and minimum values. The maximum and minimum values may correspond to the best and worst performance of one or more players.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the calculated PPL values are displayed in a visual display format such as a graph or chart for representation on World Wide Web document, or a numerical value, along with the PPL values of other players.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the plurality of attributes includes the current playing position of the player in a team. In an alternate embodiment of the invention, the plurality of attributes includes the performance level of other team members.
In an embodiment of the invention, wherein the player is an individual sportsperson playing a team sport, the plurality of attributes necessarily includes the current playing position of the player in a team.
In an embodiment of the invention, wherein the player is an individual sportsperson playing a team sport, the plurality of attributes necessarily includes the performance level of other team members.
In another embodiment of the present invention, an expert user pre-decides a range of values for the plurality of attributes. When a user enters values corresponding to the second dataset, and if the value for a particular data field is within the set range of values, then the PPL value score will be high. For e.g. in basketball the ideal height range today is 7″ to 7′ 6″, and anything outside this range will negatively affect the PPL value.
The present invention can be used to determine the PPL value of a player in an individual or team sport such as, for example, baseball, soccer, rugby, cricket, athletics, badminton, basketball, football, American football, tennis, squash, golf, chess, hockey, water skiing, baseball, bowling, volleyball, billiards, skiing, sailing, fencing, swimming, track, darts. This list serves as an illustrative example and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention.
Although the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, the present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive and the invention is not to be limited to the written description.
The present application is a continuation-in-part of currently pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/942,150, filed on Nov. 9, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
