Determining the Position of an Obscured Sporting Projectile

摘要

A sporting projectile (e.g. ball (500)) position is determined within a scene during a time interval in which the projectile is hidden from the view of a camera (e.g. within (700)). A first image sequence is captured by the camera at a first frame rate before the interval and a second image sequence of the scene is captured by the camera at a second rate after the interval. The projectile position is detected for each image, and the projectile velocity before the interval (v1) is determined on the basis of the detected position within each image in the first sequence and the first rate, and the velocity of the projectile immediately after the interval (v2) on the basis of the detected position within each image in the second sequence and the second rate. The position during the interval (708) is determined using at least one of the detected position within the scene for each image within the first and second sequence and the determined projectile velocity immediately before and immediately after the interval. The sequences of images may include a line (706) (e.g. a goal line). An indication may be generated if the projectile crosses the line.