Patent ID: 9025021
Filing Date: 2015-05-05
Classification: A63B

Abstract:
1. A system for use in sporting events for automatically determining the game object, player, and team states of in-possession, comprising: a system for tracking on-going locations of each player matched to their identification data, where the identification data at least include either or both of the player's identity or team if the sporting event is a team sport; a system for tracking the on-going locations of the game object, and a state tracking computer for receiving the on-going player locations and related identification data along with the on-going game object locations, and for determining if the game object is in a state of in-possession for each instant of received data, where the determination is made by comparing the various player locations, or any information derived from the on-going player locations at least including velocity, acceleration and trajectory, with the location of the game object, or any information derived from the on-going game object location at least including velocity, acceleration and trajectory, such that the comparison assigns the game object to a state of in-possession of a player, where the state tracking computer additionally tracks team possession, where possession is initially assigned to a team when: 1) the given team is not currently assigned possession, and 2) any one of the given team's players are assigned possession, and for removing the assignment of possession from a team when possession is no longer assigned to any player on the given team, and where the state tracking computer further designates and tracks the team events of 1) gain control, 2) exchange control and 3) relinquish control, where: a gain control event (1) is only created for a given team if either: (a) the sequence of game object states was determined of in-possession followed by under-contention followed by in-possession, wherein the player assigned to the preceding in-possession is not a member of the given team and a different player assigned to the subsequent in-possession is a member of the given team, or (b) the sequence of game object states was determined of in-possession followed by free followed by in-possession, where the player assigned to the preceding in-possession is not a member of the given team and a different player assigned to the subsequent in-possession is a member of the given team; an exchange control event (2) is only created for a given team if the sequence of game object states was determined of in-possession followed by free followed by in-possession, where the player assigned to the preceding in-possession is a member of the given team and a different player assigned to the subsequent in-possession is also a member of the given team, and a relinquish control event (3) is only created for a given team if either: (a) the sequence of game object states was determined of in-possession followed by under-contention followed by in-possession, wherein the player assigned to the preceding in-possession is a member of the given team and a different player assigned to the subsequent in-possession is not a member of the given team, (b) the sequence of game object states was determined of in-possession followed by free followed by in-possession, where the player assigned to the preceding in-possession is a member of the given team and a different player assigned to the subsequent in-possession is not a member of the given team, or (c) the game object state was determined to be in-possession of a player on the given team when the clock was subsequently determined to be not running.