NEWSBYTE It’s data set and match at Wimbledon 2018 for IBM’s Watson AI system.
Watson has been taught to recognise players’ and fans’ emotions at the Championships, and this new ability will help it generate video highlights from key matches for Wimbledon’s internal digital and content teams.
The qualifying rounds kicked off this week, with the two-week Championships beginning on 2 July, when the AI system will be deployed on the six main show courts.
With an average of three matches per court, per day, hundreds of hours of video footage soon mount up, which could take many more hours to pull together into highlight packages for fans, partners, and broadcasters.
The AI system is auto-curating match highlights based on its analysis of crowd noise, players’ movements, and score data, to help simplify the highlight video production process and focus on key moments in a match.
IBM has had a 28-year relationship with Wimbledon as its official technology partner, and has been providing cognitive/AI services to the tournament since 2015.
AI highlights
A new AI highlights dashboard will also assist the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s (AELTC) digital team. The new tool is designed to gather every shot from a match in near real time, together with its emotion level. This will help the AELTC team view and find the most exciting shots of the day or match, and make the content available across all of its digital channels, including social.
Meanwhile, IBM ‘s SlamTracker tool has been redesigned for this year’s tournament. The aim is to provide tennis fans with new levels of analysis, insight, and engagement as each match unfolds, with mobile devices in mind.
Real-time data will be integrated from multiple sources, including court-side statisticians, chair umpires, radar guns, ball position, player location, and Twitter for social sentiment.
IBM’s SlamTracker works by analysing each player’s cognitive ‘keys’, to help spectators understand what tactics to look for in a match, revealing the hidden patterns in player and match dynamics, such as the pace of play or serve placement.
The tool uses Watson APIs to refine and update each player’s style, based on real-time match data, tracking how the momentum of play has shifted over the course of each match.
Internet of Business says
Wimbledon has long been a show court for new technologies, with the IBM partnership dating back to 1990, making it as much a part of the modern tournament as Pimm’s, strawberries, and watching for storm clouds.
Internet of Business will have inside access to the tournament in its second week, where we hope to bring you one-to-one insights from the IBM team.