POSITIONAL LOCATING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20160217324A1
• Filed: 10/29/2014
• Published: 07/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avid Sports, Incorporated (Avid Technology Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Avid Sports, Incorporated (Avid Technology Incorporated)
• Inventors: Burton, Bruce J., Duckworth, Paul C., Johnson, Ryan D., Guthrie, Warren
• Granted Patent: US 9,767,351 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/16 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/784 the detected or recognised objects being people
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/00 Pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10048 Infrared image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30204 Marker
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30221 Sports video; Sports image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/54 of traffic, e.g. cars on the road, trains or boats
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/22 in connection with sports or games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/51 Motion estimation or motion compensation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus

Abstract

A method and system are disclosed for locating or otherwise generating positional information for an object, such as but not limited generating positional coordinates for an object attached to an athlete engaging in an athletic event. The positional coordinates may be processed with other telemetry and biometrical information to provide real-time performance metrics while the athlete engages in the athletic event.

Claims

1. A method of positionally identifying football players within a football field comprising:

associating an identification generated for one or more of the football players with a head device to be worn while the corresponding football player moves within the football field;

controlling a beacon included within each head device to emit a signal at an interval specified within a beacon transmission schedule;

controlling one or more cameras to capture images representative of at least a portion of the football field, each image plotting recorded signals within a two-dimensional field defined by a viewing angle of the corresponding camera;

calculating image-based positional coordinates for each signal appearing within each of the captured images, the image-based positional coordinates defining spatial positioning of one or more beacons emitting the signals relative to the two-dimensional field of each image;

reducing the image-based positional coordinates to field-based positional coordinates, the field-based positional coordinates defining spatial positioning of one or more beacons emitting the signals within at least a two-dimensional coordinate system defined relative to at least a length and width of the football field; and

for each of the images, identifying the football player at each of the field-based positional coordinates based on the identification of one or more football players scheduled to emit signals at the time the image was captured.

2. The method of claim 1 further generating the beacon transmission schedule such that each beacon emits the signal only at the intervals during which no other beacons are scheduled to emit the signal.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling each beacon to emit the same signal.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling a first one and a second one of the beacons scheduled to emit signals during the same interval to uniquely issue the signal such that the signal emitted from the first one of the beacons is different from the signal emitted from the second one of the beacons.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising wirelessly transmitting the beacon transmission schedule to each head device with signals emitted from a master station having a wireless range sufficient to support wireless communications with the head devices.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each beacon includes a forward infrared (IR) source and a rearward IR source positioned respectively at a forward end and a rearward end of a helmet used to secure each head device to the football players, and wherein the method further comprises controlling the beacon to emit the signal from at least one of the forward and rearward IR sources.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising calculating performance metrics for the football players as a function of changes in the field-based positional coordinates.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising calculating the performance metrics to represent one or more of:

routes traveled, distance from specific locations on the football field or from other athletes or objects, average distance over a period of time, burst speed and/or change in speed over a period of time, and/or length of time in a specific grid location on the football field.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising calculating each of a distance traveled and a rate of speed for each football player having signals captured within at least two images, the distance traveled and the rate of speed being based at least in part on a change in position of the corresponding football player as represented by movement of the beacon between at least two images as represented with changes to the corresponding field-based positional coordinates.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising graphically outputting at least the distance traveled and the rate of speed on a user interface in real-time a corresponding one or more of the football players moves with the football field based at least in part on signals wirelessly communicated from a master station used to calculate the distance traveled and the rate of speed.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically controlling a video camera to record video of one or more of the football players by controlling a viewing angle of the video camera to move with one or more the football players as the corresponding football player moves, the controlling of the viewing angle being based at least in part on changes in the field-based positional coordinates measured over multiple images.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having a plurality of non-transitory instructions operable with a processor to facilitate generating positional coordinates for a plurality of football players moving within a football field, the non-transitory instructions being sufficient for:

instructing objects attached to one or more of the football players to emit a locating signal according to a schedule;

capturing images of the football field in which the plurality of objects are moving with one or more cameras, each image fixing a representation of any locating signals appearing at a time of capture;

calculating positional coordinates for each of the representations, the positional coordinates reflecting a position of the object at the time of capture relative to the camera capturing the image having the representation; and

associating the positional coordinates with the one or more football players by cross-referencing the positional coordinates for each time of capture with the one or more of the plurality of moving objects scheduled to emit the locating signal at the time of capture.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions for setting the schedule such that each of the plurality of objects emits the locating signal during a different period of time.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions for emitting each locating signal at a wavelength that remains fixed throughout a portion of the period of time during which the signal is being emitted.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions for emitting each locating signal at a modulation frequency that remains fixed throughout a portion of the period of time during which the signal is being emitted.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions for emitting each locating signal without modulating the signal to include locational information such that the positional coordinates are generated based on the locating signals but without requiring the moving objects to generate the positional coordinates.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions for calculating performance metrics for the football players as a function of changes in the positional coordinates determined for the one or more football players over time.

18. A system for providing video replay of football players moving within a football field comprising:

a plurality of devices to be worn on one or more of the football players, each device each having a beacon configured to emit a signal;

one or more cameras configured to record video of at least a portion of the football field within an area defined by a viewing angle of the corresponding camera;

a master station configured to set a broadcast schedule for each of the plurality of devices, the broadcast schedule specifying a period of time during which each beacon is to emit the signal; and

an image processing unit configured to generate positional coordinates for each beacon appearing within one or more video frames included within the video, the positional coordinates being generated based on the one or more beacons scheduled to emit the signal at the time a corresponding one of the video frames was recorded and a position of the camera recording the corresponding video frame; and

a train application configured to generate performance metrics for the one or more football players as a function of the positional coordinates generated for each football player as the corresponding football player is recorded within multiple video frames.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the image processing unit is configured to facilitate replay of the video and simultaneous viewing of performance metrics for one more of the football players being viewed during replay.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein each beacon is configured to emit the signal as a non-modulated signal having a fixed wavelength and at least a portion of the performance metrics are generated based at least in part on information collected from accelerometers and/or biometric devices attached to one or more of the football players.