Systems And Methods For Analyzing Event Data

• US 20110169959A1
• Filed: 01/05/2011
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IsoLynx LLC
• Original Assignee: IsoLynx LLC
• Inventors: Evansen, Edward G., Sigel, Kirk M., DeAngelis, Douglas J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,780,204 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/157
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0025 Tracking the path or location of one or more users, e.g. players of a game
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/10 Positions
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/30 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/806 Video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/20 with means for remote communication, e.g. internet or the like
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/54 Transponders, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2243/007 American football
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0021 Tracking a path or terminating locations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/878 Combination of several spaced transmitters or receivers of known location for determining the position of a transponder or a reflector G01S13/874 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30228 Playing field
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/70 Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/42 of sport video content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/262 Studio circuits, e.g. for mixing, switching-over, change of character of image, other special effects ; Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for determining a target situation in an athletic event. Positional information including the relative positions of a group of selected participants is initially received from a tracking system, and the aggregate motion of the selected participants is detected in real-time using the positional information. The target situation may be determined to have occurred when a change in the aggregate motion occurs in accordance with a predetermined characteristic during an initial time interval.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining a target situation in an event comprising:

receiving positional information including the relative positions of a first plurality of selected participants in the event;

detecting, in real-time, aggregate motion of the selected participants using the positional information;

determining that the target situation has occurred when at least one change in the aggregate motion occurs in accordance with a predetermined characteristic during a first time interval.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of detecting aggregate motion of the first plurality of selected participants comprises determining a respective velocity of each of the first plurality of selected participants from corresponding positional information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the target situation is the start of a play in the event, and wherein the predetermined characteristic includes an increase in the aggregate motion of at least a first threshold amount during the first time interval.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a second plurality of selected participants are in predetermined respective positions prior to the first time interval.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the aggregate motion remains below a second threshold value for a second time interval prior to the first time interval.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining an end of the play after detecting the start of the play, when the aggregate motion decreases by at least a second threshold amount during a second time interval subsequent to the first time interval.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the aggregate motion remains above a third threshold value during a third time interval between the first and second time intervals.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising controlling at least one video camera to start generating a video feed of at least part of the event in response to detecting the beginning of the play.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising controlling the video camera to stop generating the video feed of the event in response to detecting the end of play.

10. A computer-implemented method for detecting a play in an event in real time using data extracted from a tracking system providing positional information for event participants, the method comprising:

identifying a pre-play target set of conditions;

identifying a system arm condition;

identifying a play start condition;

establishing an aggregate motion baseline of the play; and

identifying an end-of-play condition.

11. A computer-implemented method for predicting the relative success of player formations in an event comprising:

determining relative positions of players of interest in a static formation;

comparing the positions in the static formation against a library of the standard formations to find a matching standard formation in the library corresponding to the static formation;

determining the deviations in the static formation relative to the matching standard formation;

logging the deviations and associated attributes in a deviation database;

accessing the deviation database to identify correlations between each of the deviations and results of plays using the deviations;

comparing results of plays using the deviations with results of plays using the matching standard formation; and

generating a report including the relative success of the deviations and the corresponding standard formation.

12. A computer-implemented method for predicting the success of a play in an event comprising:

determining relative positions of selected players in a static formation;

comparing the positions in the static formation against a library of standard formations to find a matching standard formation in the library corresponding to the static formation;

determining deviations in the static formation relative to the matching standard formation;

logging the deviations and associated attributes in a database;

accessing play data to retrieve results of previous plays executed by the opponent in a specific type of game situation;

sorting the results based on the matching standard formation and frequency of plays in the specific game situation;

tabulating a percentage of times specific plays were run from the corresponding standard formation in the specific type of game situation;

comparing outcomes of plays using the deviations with outcomes of plays using the matching standard formation; and

generating a report including the relative success of the plays using the deviations and matching standard formation.

13. A computer-implemented method for generating recommendations to improve the performance of a team in an event comprising:

determining paths of each player in a selected group for the duration of a play in the event to establish a dynamic play execution;

comparing the dynamic play execution against a library of standard plays to find a matching standard play;

determining path deviations for each said path in the dynamic play execution, relative to corresponding standard paths in the matching standard play;

logging the path deviations and associated attributes in a database;

accessing the database to identify correlations between the path deviations and outcomes of matching standard plays;

comparing outcomes of the plays with path deviations and corresponding plays using standard paths; and

generating a report including relative success of the plays with the deviant paths and corresponding plays using standard paths.

14. A computer-implemented method for predicting the behavior of a team of interest in an event comprising:

establishing paths of each player in a selected group, for the team of interest, for the duration of a play in the event to establish a dynamic play execution;

comparing the dynamic play execution against a library of standard plays for the team of interest to find a matching standard play;

determining path deviations for each said path in the dynamic play execution, relative to corresponding standard paths in the matching standard play;

logging the deviations and associated attributes in a database;

accessing the database to identify correlations between the path deviations and outcomes of the matching standard plays;

tabulating a percentage of times specific plays were run by the team of interest in a specific type of game situation when one of the deviations was present;

comparing the type of play executed in the specific type of game situation when one of the deviations was present, with the type of play executed when the play was executed without one of the deviations; and

generating a report including the predicted behavior of the team of interest as a function of deviant play execution and the specific type of game situation, for the team of interest.

15. A computer-implemented method for annotating a video feed of an event comprising:

receiving the video feed of at least part of the event;

receiving positional information from a tracking system including the position of a selected participant in the event;

determining the path of travel of the participant from the positional information; and

overlaying, onto the video feed, graphical information indicating the path of travel, and graphical information identifying the participant.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the video feed is a live video feed, and the steps of determining and overlaying are performed in real-time.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining a target participant to be tracked in response to identification of the start of a play; and

causing at least one video camera to track the target participant.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising analyzing the path of travel to evaluate performance of the participant.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of analyzing further comprises determining a distance traveled by the participant and displaying the distance via graphical information overlaid onto the video feed.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the participant is selected by a user via a wireless handheld device.

21. The method of claim 16, further including:

determining the start of a play in the event by identifying a line set condition and subsequently detecting an increase in aggregate motion, by a first threshold amount, of a plurality of the participants;

determining the end of a play by detecting a decrease in the aggregate motion of the plurality of the participants, by at least a second threshold amount; and

determining the path of travel of an official in the event for the time period between the start of the play and the end of the play; and

overlaying, onto the video feed, graphical information indicating the path of travel of the official.

22. A computer-implemented method for displaying player identification graphics in an event comprising:

receiving a video feed of the event;

receiving positional information from a tracking system including the positions of selected players in the event;

calculating the direction of an off-screen player, not present in the video feed, relative to a border of a display screen on which the video feed is displayed, using the positional information;

determining a location along the border closest to the off-screen player; and

placing a highlighting indicator on the display screen proximate to the location to indicate that the off-screen player is in a particular direction relative to the images displayed on the screen.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein, when a previously said off-screen player again becomes visible on-screen, the appearance of the highlighting indicator is changed.

24. A computer-implemented method for annotating a video stream of a participant in an event comprising:

receiving the video stream including the participant;

determining the position of the participant from positional information provided by a tracking system including the position of the participant;

overlaying, on top of the video stream, a transparent window identical in size to an image of the video stream when displayed;

drawing a semi-transparent highlighting shape, approximately the size of the participant, in the window at the approximate position of the participant; and

overlaying the highlighting indicator on the video stream to create an image wherein the participant is highlighted.

25. The method of claim 24, further including re-drawing the highlighting shape only when the position of the participant changes by a predetermined displacement.

26. The method of claim 24, further including calculating a metric indicating the size of the participant in the image of the video stream, each time new location information arrives for the participants, wherein the metric is used to determine the size of the highlighting shape, and is based on information including the video camera location, the location of the participant, the pan &

tilt settings of a camera originating the video stream, and the zoom level of the camera.

27. The method of claim 24, further including highlighting one of more of the participants whose path meets predetermined criteria.

28. A computer-implemented method for automating video filming of a game on a field comprising:

(a) capturing, via a first video camera, for a predetermined duration, an image of a scoreboard displaying information relating to the game;

(b) upon detecting a predetermined pre-play condition, capturing, via the first camera, all of the players on the field for the length of the subsequent play;

(c) upon detecting a start of play condition, capturing, via the first camera and a second video camera, all of the players on the field until an end of play condition is detected; and

repeating steps (a)-(c) until the end of the game.

29. A computer-implemented method for providing information related to an athletic event comprising:

receiving respective positions of a plurality of participants on a playing field for the event;

analyzing the positions to determine a predefined parameter in the athletic event; and

wirelessly transmitting the parameter to a portable device.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein one of the participants is selected by a user via a wireless handheld device.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the predefined parameter is selected by a user via a wireless handheld device.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the predefined parameter comprises the participants presently on the field.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the predefined parameter comprises a correct number of participants in a playing area, and wherein the portable device automatically provides an indication when an incorrect number of participants are in the playing area.

34. A computer-implemented system for displaying athletic event information comprising:

a video camera for capturing images of the event and placing the images in a video feed;

a tracking system for providing the positions of selected participants in the event;

a computing device, coupled to the camera, for processing the images from the video feed and the tracking system to provide game information related to the event;

a handheld device wirelessly coupled to the computing device for displaying at least some of the game information, and for issuing commands to the computing device; and

a display device, coupled to the computing device;

wherein the commands issued from the handheld device determines what aspects of the information are displayed on the display device.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the display device is a scoreboard used at the event.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the display device is used to display replays of plays in the event selected via the handheld device.

37. A computer-implemented method for controlling imaging of an event in which players are participating on a field of play comprising:

automatically capturing a target situation by directing a robotic camera to cover an area of interest on the field of play in anticipation of a target situation and for a period of time after the target situation has occurred;

wherein the target situation is anticipated at least partially in response to event characterization information including at least one of identification of a player formation, identification of a play, beginning of a play, end of a play, a player'"'"'s path of travel, a position of the line of scrimmage, and position and orientation of coaches and officials.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein said target situation includes the beginning of a play.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein said target situation includes an instance in which two selected players are positioned within a predetermined distance of each other.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the area of interest is one of a huddle, a selected participant, an area including plurality of selected participants, and the line of scrimmage.

41. The method of claim 37, wherein the robotic camera is directed to track at least one of the players after detection of the target situation.

42. The method of claim 37, targeting an area of interest with a robotic camera in anticipation of said target situation when one of the players is in predetermined proximity to the area of interest.