Patent ID: 9744457
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: A63B,A63F,G06F,G06K,G06Q,G06T,H04N

Claim:
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 camera; based on the respective positions of the individual players, performing a cluster analysis to identify player groups within the zones of interest; predicting a transition of the individual players or player groups between first and second adjacent zones of interest; analyzing activity of the individual players or player groups within at least the first or second adjacent zones of interest; and based on the activity analysis, adjusting a field of view of the at least one camera to follow the activity and capture the broadcastable video of the sporting event wherein optically tracking the individual players comprises: extracting foreground blobs from frames of video captured by the at least one camera; determining locations of the foreground blobs based on their positions within the frames of the video; correlating each of the foreground blobs to a respective one of the individual players; and maintaining a list of tracked players, each tracked player in the list being associated with a predetermined number of last known locations of the player; wherein correlating the foreground blobs comprises matching the location of a foreground blob to a player in the list having a last known location closest to the foreground blob, and if a match is found, updating the list so that a most recent last known location associated with the player corresponds to the location of the foreground blob, and if a match is not found, adding a new tracked player to the list with a most recent last known location corresponding to the location of the foreground blob.