System and method for optical player tracking in sports venues

摘要

A system and method optically track players and automatically capture broadcastable video of a sporting event within a venue. The system includes at least one fixed tracking camera, a remote-controlled broadcast camera, and a scoreboard camera, with each of the components being in communication with a processing system. The method involves dividing the venue into zones of interest, optically tracking individual players in the zones of interest, identifying player groups in the zones of interest, determining a zone of interest containing the most players, analyzing player activity in the zone of interest with the most players, selecting a current gameplay scenario corresponding to the player activity from a set of predetermined gameplay scenarios, and adjusting the pan, tilt and zoom of a broadcast camera according to the current gameplay scenario.

主权项

1. A method for automatically capturing broadcastable video of a sporting event within a venue, the method comprising the steps of:
dividing the venue into a plurality of zones of interest; optically tracking individual players in the venue by determining respective positions of the individual players within the zones of interest using at least one fixed tracking camera; based on the respective positions of the individual players, performing a cluster analysis to identify player groups within the zones of interest; determining a given one of the zones of interest containing the most number of individual players; analyzing activity of the individual players and player groups within the given one of the zones of interest to select a current gameplay scenario corresponding to said activity, said current gameplay scenario being selected from a predetermined set of gameplay scenarios; based on the current gameplay scenario, adjusting a pan, tilt or zoom of a broadcast camera in real-time, thereby changing a field of view of the broadcast camera and capturing the broadcastable video of the sporting event further comprising identifying individual players or player groups transitioning between adjacent zones of interest, and wherein the current gameplay scenario is selected based on a current position, speed, or direction of the individual players or player groups transitioning between the adjacent zones; further comprising predicting a transition of the individual players or player groups between first and second adjacent zones, and wherein the activity of the individual players and player groups is analyzed within both the first adjacent zone and the second adjacent zone in order to select the current gameplay scenario.