Electronic Analysis of Athletic Performance

• US 20140039651A1
• Filed: 10/04/2013
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Russell Brands LLC (Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Information Sports Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Crowley, Michael James
• Granted Patent: US 9,298,418 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/91
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/10 Athletes
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0012 Comparing movements or motion sequences with a registered reference
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2243/0037 Basketball
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0006 Computerised comparison for qualitative assessment of motion sequences or the course of a movement
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/0071 for basketball
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a computer-implemented athletic performance analysis method that includes obtaining, at a computer system, first motion data reflecting motion of a sporting device during one or more drills performed by an athlete. The method also includes creating and storing action data by identifying a plurality of portions of the motion data, where each of the portions correspond to one or more actions by the athlete; comparing the action data for the athlete, with the computer system, to corresponding aggregated action data for a plurality of other athletes to determine a relative skill level for the athlete with respect to the one or more actions; and generating data for a report that reflects the relative development level of the athlete.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented athletic performance analysis method, comprising:

obtaining, at a computer system, first motion data reflecting motion of a sporting device during one or more drills performed by an athlete;

creating and storing action data by identifying a plurality of portions of the motion data, where each of the portions correspond to one or more actions by the athlete;

comparing the action data for the athlete, with the computer system, to corresponding aggregated action data for a plurality of other athletes to determine a relative skill level for the athlete with respect to the one or more actions; and

generating data for a report that reflects the relative development level of the athlete.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising capturing the motion data with a plurality of motion sensors mounted inside a sporting ball.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising wirelessly communicating the first motion data over a short-range connection to the computer system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the wireless communicating is instigated by a request from the computer system to a controller in the sporting ball made during period when the sporting ball is not capturing data.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a relative skill level for the athlete corresponding to a first drill at a computer local to the sporting device, and determining a relative skill level for the athlete corresponding to a subsequent plurality of drills at a computer system remote from the sporting device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the report to a portable media to be provided to the athlete.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the report includes a ranking of the athlete within a continuum of athletic performance and one or more instructions directed to reducing weaknesses identified in the athlete'"'"'s performance.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining second motion data reflecting motion of the sporting device during one or more drills performed by the athlete at a time subsequent to obtaining the first motion data, and performing a comparison of the athlete'"'"'s performance between obtaining the first motion data and obtaining the second motion data.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing information from the first motion data and the second motion data to data representing athletic development of an aggregated plurality of athletes, to generate a predicted athletic performance trend for the athlete.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data for the report represents an overall skill level for the athlete, and a plurality of levels for each of a plurality of actions that were tested by the drills.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the action data for the athlete and the aggregated action data for the plurality of other athletes is matched to common portions of common drills performed by each of the athletes.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more drills follow a series of actions defined to a level of repeatability needed to produce motion data sufficient to permit statistically significant comparison between the athlete and the plurality of athletes.

13. A computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system, comprising:

a data collection interface in a computer system to obtaining first motion data reflecting motion of a sporting device during one or more drills performed by an athlete;

a computer-implemented classifier to compare data corresponding to the first motion data to aggregated motion data for drills matching the one or more drills performed by the athlete, for a plurality athletes to determine a relative skill level for the athlete; and

a report generator to generate data for a report reflecting the relative development level of the athlete.

14. The computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system of claim 13, further comprising a classification rules generator to identify common features for athletes of a known skill level and to generate rules for determining how other athlete compare to the known skill level.

15. The computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system of claim 14, wherein the classification rules generator comprises an expert system that identifies common features in motion-related data from the athletes of a known skill level and generates rules that are predictive for classifying other athletes according to the known skill levels.

16. The computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system of claim 13, further comprising a trend generator for analyzing the first motion data form the athlete from a first time period and second motion data from a second time period for the athlete, and comparing differences between the first motion data and the second motion data to trend data for the athletes of known skill level to predict a skill level for the athlete.

17. The computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system of claim 13, further comprising a client computer subsystem proximate to the sporting device and a server computer subsystem remote from the sporting device, wherein the client computing subsystem is programmed to provide the first motion data to the server computer subsystem, and the server computer subsystem is programmed to provide to the client computer subsystem the data for a report reflecting the relative development level of the athlete.

18. The computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system of claim 17, wherein the server computer subsystem includes a demonstration mode in which data for a first drill is analyzed and reported on, and a full test mode in which data for a plurality of drills other than the first drill are analyzed and reported on.

19. The computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system of claim 17, wherein the client computer subsystem includes a wireless interface configured to communicate with a motion sensing system inside the sporting device.

20. The computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system of claim 13, further comprising an accounting module configured to correlate an identity of the client computing subsystem with an account, and to debit an accountholder associated with the account for the report.

21. The computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system of claim 13, wherein the report includes a ranking of the athlete within a continuum of athletic performance and one or more instructions directed to reducing weaknesses identified in the athlete'"'"'s performance.

22. An article comprising one or more tangible computer-readable data storage media containing program code operable to cause one or more machines to perform operations, the operations comprising:

obtaining, at a computer system, first motion data reflecting motion of a sporting device during one or more drills performed by an athlete;

creating and storing action data by identifying a plurality of portions of the motion data, where each of the portions correspond to one or more actions by the athlete;

comparing the action data for the athlete, with the computer system, to corresponding aggregated action data for a plurality of other athletes to determine a relative skill level for the athlete with respect to the one or more actions; and

generating data for a report that reflects the relative development level of the athlete.

23. The article of claim 22, wherein the operations further comprise determining a relative skill level for the athlete corresponding to a first drill at a computer local to the sporting device, and determining a relative skill level for the athlete corresponding to a subsequent plurality of drills at a computer system remote from the sporting device.

24. The article of claim 22, wherein the report includes a ranking of the athlete within a continuum of athletic performance and one or more instructions directed to reducing weaknesses identified in the athlete'"'"'s performance.

25. The article of claim 22, wherein the operations further comprise obtaining second motion data reflecting motion of the sporting device during one or more drills performed by the athlete at a time subsequent to obtaining the first motion data, and performing a comparison of the athlete'"'"'s performance between obtaining the first motion data and obtaining the second motion data.

26. The article of claim 22, wherein the operations further comprise comparing information from the first motion data and the second motion data to data representing athletic development of an aggregated plurality of athletes, to generate a predicted athletic performance trend for the athlete.

27. A computer-implemented athletic performance analysis method, comprising:

obtaining, via wireless communication devices, motion-related data for a pre-selected set of athletic drills from a plurality of athletes using motion sensors corresponding to a athletic device;

analyzing the data obtained from the plurality of athletes to create a predictive standardized test for assessing skill competency; and

generating a predictive skill level description for a human subject by statistical analysis that compares motion-related data for the subject for the pre-selected set of athletic drills, to motion-related data for the plurality of athletes.

28. A computer-implemented athletic performance analysis system, comprising:

a data collection interface in a computer system to obtaining first motion data reflecting motion of a sporting device during one or more drills performed by an athlete;

means for identifying a skill level for the athlete by comparing data corresponding to the first motion data to similar data aggregated from a plurality of athletes of known skill level; and

a report generator to generate data for a report reflecting the relative development level of the athlete.