White Paper 220 : Sports TV Applications of Computer Vision

Graham Thomas

February 2012

Abstract

This White Paper gives an overview of applications of Computer Vision that can help the sports broadcaster illustrate, analyse and explain sporting events. They allow the generation of images and graphics that can be incorporated in the broadcast, providing visual support to the commentators and pundits. After a discussion of simple graphics overlay on static images, systems are described that rely on calibrated cameras to insert graphics or to overlay content from other images. Approaches are then discussed that use computer vision to provide more advanced effects, for tasks such as segmenting people from the background, and inferring the 3D position of people and balls. As camera calibration is a key component for all but the simplest applications, an approach to real-time calibration of broadcast cameras is then presented. The chapter concludes with a discussion of some current challenges.

This document was originally published in ‘Visual Analysis of Humans: Looking at People’, Moeslund, T. B.; Hilton, A.; Krüger, V.; Sigal, L. (Eds.), Springer 2011. The original publication is available at Click www.springerlink.com.

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