System providing location information in a sports game

Abstract

Method and system for providing information which may be used in games for judging the game according to the rules of the game and / or increasing the benefit of the viewer and observer of a reportage by provided statistics and / or visualization of events on e.g. sport arenas and utilization of the information. The system includes a local position system including at least three transmitter units (1) for transmitting of GPS-like signals, mobile units (3) for receiving of the GPS-like signals. At least one mobile unit (3) is mounted on the sport performer and / or sport equipment. The mobile units (3) include a data processor (8) for processing the GPS-like signals in known ways to provide position parameters.

Description

[0001] This application is a continuation of co-pending application Ser. No. 10 / 049,059, filed May 10, 2002, which is the National Phase of PCT / NO00 / 00259, filed Aug. 8, 2000, which claims priority of Norwegian application No. 19993830, filed Aug. 9, 1999 and No. 20001024, filed Feb. 29, 2000. The entire contents of each of the above-identified applications are hereby incorporated by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The invention concerns a method and system for integrated and interactive presentation of sports events in media in order to give media, viewers, audiences and coaches more information and insight in the performance of teams and individuals, and further improves the quality of the referees calls through digitalization of sports events via sensors which register the position of people and sports objects and via appropriate software for data processing and media visualization, more specifically the invention concerns a method for production of information as sp...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005] The invention is intended to enable the production of equipment and software which may be integrated to establish, with high precision, a digital version of sports events and where the digital data through appropriate processing and presentation gives easy access to significantly more information and increases the entertainment value in sports reporting and provides coaches with more complete and significantly faster tools for analyzing sports events. In the following we are primarily referring to soccer and sports in general but the invention may of course also be used in other areas where it is desirable to acquire information about moving objects within a limited area.

Problems solved by technology

The high rate of wrong call we are seeing today in soccer gives riser to controversies that is damaging for the sports status, as well as causing unfair distribution of profit for the teams, should a wrong call upset the fair result of a match and appoint the wrong winner.

This is again left to the referees's visual impression and may be problematic in a situation where many players are crowding the ball in the goal yard.

A further situation that may sometimes be difficult is the judgment of hands.

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