 "Race in a sports car, play against Federer: AI lets you be a sport champ")
If you’re a tennis buff, how would you like to play a game or two with Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal? It can only happen in a dream, right? Well, not quite. While sharing the nets with your tennis hero may seem impossible in the physical world, it can become a “reality” in the world of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
Witness what Infosys, the technology partner of the French Open, has done at Roland-Garros in Paris. It has come up with AR and VR-based applications supplemented by analytics and sensor-based technologies that enable fans to play a round of tennis with their favourite tennis star.
“We have created fan zones in the stadium, where VR & AR-based applications give the fans a chance to enter into the central court in a virtual mode and play with a favourite player,” says UB Pravin Rao, chief operating officer (COO), at Infosys. “Apart from getting an immersive experience, fans can also compare their games with tennis greats such as Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic.”
Today, technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data and data analytics are being used to improve not only the viewer experience, but also to help players and coaches analyse match performances better. Infosys has introduced digital platforms such as “MatchBeats”, “StatsLounge”, “Stats+” in the Australian Open and French Open tournaments to provide valuable insights into the game.
The MatchBeats digital dashboard — which is hosted on AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing platform — presents live tennis scores and gives insights into the matches through AI-based applications. For instance, it shows the ups and downs in the match, which player is serving better, who is committing more errors and so on. Fans can also get counts on break points, double faults, rally lengths, among others. “The technology is backed by sound visualisation, which helps to identify critical stats in the game and provides graphical representation,” says Rao.
Similarly, “Stat+”, an artificial intelligence-powered tool, pinpoints the statistics that are influencing the match. And the information — such as the number of double faults or service breaks etc — is ordered according to their impact on the outcome of the match. This is of immense help to players and coaches alike.
Statslounge is another AI-powered platform which is enabling players to study and analyse their game during the tournament. This is usually installed where they practise.
Then there is “Leaderboards”, which ranks players based on the points earned on such parameters of the game as “ace”, “first serve”, “second serve”, “net points” and “break points”. Infosys has deployed this platform in several other tennis tournaments with which it works as a technology partner.
The new technologies are also making the organisers of international tournaments aware of the level of engagement of fans. “We have designed the ‘Roland-Garros social heatmap’, which brings together the pulse of the game on social media across the world. In this application, we pull out all the conversations about the game happening in various social media platforms. So fans can click on a trending player and get to know about celebrities who are posting comments on the game,” says Rao of Infosys.
However, it is not only tennis tourneys that are using AI and big data to enhance the experience of spectators and players alike. Games like cricket, football and hockey have also started applying these technologies to turn themselves more new-age.
For instance, former cricketer Anil Kumble has come up with the concept of a “power bat”, one where the bat will carry a chip on its shoulder. The data from the sticker-chip is fed into a stump box and captured and processed using Microsoft’s Azure Sphere. This data is made available to the broadcaster of the match in real time and to the player to mull over later. Kumble’s start-up, Spektacom Technologies, has already run a pilot with Tamil Nadu Premier League and is now ready to scale up through its broadcast partner Star Sports.
In the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup matches, the Indian players are wearing a vest fitted with a GPS-tracking device under their jersey. The device also measures the physical metrics of each player, including distance run, speed, acceleration, deceleration, and dynamic stress load. The idea is ensure that the players are in peak physical condition, says STATSports, a UK-based sports tech company which is assisting the Board of Control for Cricket in India. STATSports’ clientele includes several top football clubs in the world, including Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Barcelona.
The ice hockey tournament conducted by the National Hockey League is also using wearable technology to improve player conditioning and performance.
Clearly, sport, too, is being transformed by the magic of artificial intelligence.
