Briefs

New Scientist (06/30/04); Randerson, James

Several research teams are trying to develop software that can automatically recognize key moments in live TV sports broadcasts and edit them into a clip of highlights. A team at Dublin's Trinity College is working out a methodology by using PC-based software to study table-based ball games such as snooker and pool: The software determines the balls' positions using the table's edges and the location of the pockets as reference points, and is programmed with the rules of the game so it can track balls in motion and ascertain the action they signify. This scheme involves a limited number of moving objects that can be easily tracked, unlike sports such as soccer and American football, which have the added disadvantage of taking place on a playing field with patchy, variable color that can also confuse the software.

A team at Italy's University of Florence is pursuing a solution that does not involve tracking the movement of the ball or the players, using a soccer game as a template. Their software focuses on the positions of players in set pieces, and determines which area is in the frame by pinpointing the position of the pitch markings in a shot. The software then checks the positions the players assume in relation to the markings, and decides whether a player is about to perform a set piece as well as whether or not the result of the action is a goal.

Ahmet Ekin of New York's University of Rochester has authored software that ascertains whether a goal has been scored by looking for a specific sequence of camera shots, and he aims to integrate picture analysis with audio analysis to boost the accuracy of the results. All of the research promises to save broadcasters lots of money in editing costs and pave the way for video recorders that allow people to tailor sports highlights packages to their personal preferences.

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