Competition image distribution system

Abstract

To solve the problem that since the conventional competition image distribution service is that a viewer and a commentator only view an image of a competition performed by a virtual player on a computer, it is difficult to know information such as a history and an affiliation of the virtual player on the computer from the image of the competition to be distributed and information on an appearance and an age of the actual competitor as a virtual player.SOLUTION: A competition image distribution service that distributes an image (competition image (8)) that a player performs a competition via a communication line network (7) determines a player (main player) who performs the competition in the competition image (8) on the basis of the competition image (8), generates an image (player image (10)) containing information in regard to their main player, generates an image (distribution image (11)) obtained by synthesizing the player image (10) to the competition image (8), and distributes the distribution image (11) to be generated via the communication line network (7).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a competition image distribution service that distributes images of players competing via a communication network. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, a sports image distribution service has been provided in which images of sports, games, and other competitions played on a computer are distributed via a communication network such as the Internet along with live commentary by a commentator, allowing viewers to view the images and commentary of the competition.

[0003] In this competitive image distribution service, real athletes become virtual players on a computer and play various sports and games, and a commentator watches and comments on images of the competitions played by the virtual players on the computer, which are then viewed by viewers (see, for example, Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2023-96234 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In the above-mentioned conventional competition image distribution services, viewers and commentators watch images of competitions being played by virtual players on a computer.

[0006] As a result, it was difficult for viewers and commentators to immediately learn from the images of the games streamed information associated with the virtual computer-generated players, such as their backgrounds and affiliations, or information corresponding to the real athletes who played the virtual players, such as their appearances and ages. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] Therefore, in the present invention of claim 1, in a competition image distribution service that distributes images (competition images) of players competing via a communication network, the player (main player) competing in the competition image is identified based on the competition image, an image (player image) containing information about the main player is generated, an image (distribution image) is generated by combining the player image with the competition image, and the generated distribution image is distributed via the communication network.

[0008] Furthermore, in the present invention as claimed in claim 2, in the present invention as claimed in claim 1, images (template images) predicted to be displayed in the competition image for each of a plurality of players are generated in advance, images (cropped images) are generated by cutting out a portion of the competition image, and the image similarities between the plurality of template images and the cropped images are calculated, and the player with the template image having the highest similarity is determined to be the main player.

[0009] Furthermore, in the present invention as claimed in claim 3, in the present invention as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, it is possible to generate an image (captured image) by capturing a competition image using a native application, and a distribution image is generated and distributed based on the captured image using a web application only if the captured image exists. Effect of the Invention

[0010] The present invention provides the following advantages.

[0011] That is, in the present invention, in a competition image distribution service which distributes images (competition images) of players competing via a communication network, the player (main player) competing in the competition image is identified based on the competition image, an image (player image) containing information about the main player is generated, an image (distribution image) is generated in which the player image is combined with the competition image, and the generated distribution image is distributed via the communication network, so that viewers and commentators can immediately obtain information about the player by looking at the player image in the distribution image.

[0012] In particular, if images (template images) predicted to be displayed in the competition image for each of a plurality of players are generated in advance, images (cropped images) are generated by cutting out a portion of the competition image, the image similarities between the plurality of template images and the cropped images are calculated, and the player in the template image with the highest similarity is determined to be the main player, the main player can be accurately identified from the competition image.

[0013] In addition, if it is possible to generate images (capture images) by capturing competition images using a native application, and a web application is used to generate and distribute distribution images based on the capture images only if the capture images exist, viewers and commentators can use the native application to choose whether or not to composite a player image into the distribution image. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a competition image distribution system. [Diagram 2] FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing a competition image distribution service. [Diagram 3] 4 is a flowchart showing the main software. [Figure 4] 11 is a flowchart showing a cropped image generating subroutine. [Diagram 5] 13 is a flowchart showing a player determination subroutine. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0015] A specific configuration of the competition image distribution service according to the present invention will be described below.

[0016] The competition image distribution service is performed using a competition image distribution system 1 shown in FIG. 1. In this competition image distribution system 1, a terminal 2 of a service provider that provides the competition image distribution service, a terminal 3 of a content provider that provides content such as sports and games, a terminal 4 of one or more real athletes who compete in the content, a terminal 5 of a commentator who provides live commentary of the competition held in the content, and a terminal 6 of one or more viewers who view the image of the content together with live commentary audio are connected via a communication line network 7. Note that each of the terminals 2 to 6 only needs to have a function as a computer that can communicate with each other, and corresponds to a large computer, a personal computer, a mobile terminal, etc. Each of the terminals 2 to 6 is provided with a storage medium. This storage medium may be a storage medium built into each of the terminals 2 to 6, or may be an accessible external storage medium. Furthermore, the communication line network 7 only needs to have a function that allows mutual communication regardless of whether it is wired or wireless, dedicated or general-purpose, and a representative example is the Internet, but it does not necessarily have to be a cloud environment and may be an on-premise environment.

[0017] In the following description, real people in the real world who compete in content such as sports and games using a computer are called athletes, and characters created in the virtual space where the competition is taking place on the computer are called players, and within the content, specific athletes compete as corresponding specific players.

[0018] In the competition image distribution system 1, the content provider's terminal 3 provides the content of sports, games, etc. to the athlete's terminal 4 via the communication line network 7, the athlete operates the terminal 4 to play as a player in the content and compete, a commentator watches the competition and gives commentary, and the content provider's terminal 3 provides to the viewer's terminal 6 an image (competition image 8) that combines the video of the player competing with the commentary audio of the commentator. If a commentator is present, the competition image 8 becomes data that combines the video of the competition and the commentary audio, but if a commentator is not present, it becomes data only of the video of the competition. The competition image 8 may be continuous data in a time series that includes at least images of the competition performed on a computer, and may be data with audio, such as sound effects or commentary audio, added to the competition image, or data without audio.

[0019] In the competition image distribution service, in the above-mentioned competition image distribution system 1, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, the service provider uses competition image distribution software 9 to identify the player (main player) competing in the competition image 8 based on the competition image 8, generates an image (player image 10) containing information about the main player, generates an image (distribution image 11) by combining the player image 10 with the competition image 8, and distributes the generated distribution image 11 from the service provider terminal 2 to the commentator's terminal 5 and the viewer's terminal 6 via the communication line network 7.

[0020] The competition image distribution software 9 is composed of logger software 12 as a native application launched on the commentator's terminal 5 and the viewer's terminal 6, and main software 13 as a web application launched on the service provider's terminal 2.

[0021] Then, the logger software 12 is used to generate an image (captured image 14) that captures the competition image 8, and the main software 13 is used to generate and distribute a distribution image 11 based on the captured image 14 only if the captured image 14 exists.

[0022] The logger software 12 is started on the commentator's terminal 5 and the viewer's terminal 6, and sequentially stores the competition images 8 delivered from the content provider's terminal 3 to the terminals 5 and 6 via a communication line network 7 as capture images 14 in a capture image holder of a storage medium.

[0023] In this logger software 12, the commentator or viewer can select whether or not to save the competition image 8 as a capture image 14 using the terminal 5, 6. The competition image 8 is saved as the capture image 14 from the time the commentator or viewer starts saving until the commentator or viewer performs an operation to end saving. Only when the capture image 14 exists in the capture image holder, the main software 13 generates a distribution image 11 and distributes it from the service provider terminal 2 to the commentator or viewer's terminal 5, 6, so that the selection by the commentator or viewer of whether or not to save the capture image 14 is equivalent to the selection of whether or not to distribute the distribution image 11. Note that if the commentator or viewer does not save the capture image 14, the competition image 8 is distributed from the content provider terminal 3 to the commentator or viewer's terminal 5, 6.

[0024] The main software 13 is started on the service provider's terminal 2. In this terminal 2, images (template images 15) that are generated in advance for each of the players and that are predicted to be displayed in the competition image 8 for that player are stored in a template image holder of a storage medium. In addition, in the terminal 2, data (player information 16) such as a player ID, player name, team, and profile image (photo of the player corresponding to the player, etc.) that are generated in advance for each of the players, data (team information 17) such as a team name and team icon that are generated in advance for each of the teams, and data (display information 18) such as threshold values ​​(minimum and maximum values) of each RGB color and threshold values ​​of the number of dots that are set in advance based on an image that is predicted to display the player name in the competition image 8 are stored in a player information holder, a team information holder, and a display information holder. These template images 15, player information 16, and team information 17 are associated with each player by a player ID that is set for each player. Here, the template images 15 are images such as a character, mark, and icon of the player that are predicted to be displayed in the competition image 8, and one or more template images 15 are prepared for each player. It should be noted that, depending on the player, there may be cases where the template image 15, player information 16, and team information 17 are not prepared in advance.

[0025] As shown in FIG. 3, this main software 13 accesses the terminals 5, 6 of the commentators and viewers via the communication network 7, and checks in the logger software 12 whether or not a captured image 14 has been saved in the captured image holder. If a captured image 14 has been saved, the following processing is repeatedly performed in a loop within the range in which the captured image 14 exists (S1).

[0026] The main software 13 uses a captured image 14 obtained by a commentator or viewer capturing a competition image 8 on a terminal 5, 6 (based on the competition image 8), to cut out a portion of the captured image 14 (competition image 8) in which information (icons, etc.) of the players actually playing the competition is predicted to be displayed, and saves the image as a cropped image 19 in a cropped image folder of the storage medium (S2).

[0027] At that time, the main software 13 executes a cropped image generating subroutine shown in FIG.

[0028] In this cropped image generation subroutine, the captured image 14 is read from the captured image holder of the terminal 5, 6 into the service provider terminal 2 (S3), and the threshold values ​​for each RGB color and the dot count threshold of the display information 18 are obtained from the display information holder (S4, S5).

[0029] Then, for the area in the captured image 14 where the player's name is displayed, a determination is made as to whether the number of dots within the threshold range for each RGB color (between the minimum and maximum values) is greater than or equal to the dot number threshold (S6).If it is greater than or equal to the threshold, an image is generated by cutting out an image within a preset pixel range from the captured image 14, and this image is stored as a cropped image 19 in a specified position in the cropped image holder (file path of the cropped image) (S7).On the other hand, if it is less than the threshold, no cropped image 19 is generated and the file path of the cropped image is left blank (S8).

[0030] When this cropped image generation subroutine is executed, each time it is executed, the captured image 14 of the terminal 5, 6 used in the execution is moved from the captured image folder to the processed folder and deleted from the captured image folder of the terminal 5, 6, and the file path of the cropped image 19 is returned to the main routine (Figure 3) (S9).

[0031] Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the main software 13 determines whether or not a cropped image 19 exists based on the file path of the cropped image 19 returned from the cropped image generation subroutine (S10), and if the cropped image 19 does not exist, it recognizes that the player ID does not exist (S11). On the other hand, if the cropped image 19 exists, it identifies the player from the cropped image 19 (S12).

[0032] At that time, the main software 13 executes a player discrimination subroutine shown in FIG.

[0033] In this player discrimination subroutine, the generated cropped image 19 is obtained from the cropped image holder of the terminal 2 (S13), and the following processing is repeatedly performed in a loop within the range in which the template image 15 previously stored in the template image holder exists (S14).

[0034] The player discrimination subroutine acquires the template image 15 from the template image holder (S15), and calculates the similarity by template matching using the template image 15 and the cropped image 19 (S16). The similarity can be calculated by finding a cross-correlation coefficient using various known normalized cross-correlation formulas used in image recognition.

[0035] After performing the above process for all template images 15, the player discrimination subroutine selects the template image 15 with the highest similarity between each template image 15 and the cropped image 19, and obtains the player ID corresponding to that template image 15 (S17).

[0036] The player identification subroutine then determines whether the similarity between the template image 15 and the cropped image 19 of the acquired player ID is greater than a preset threshold (S18), and if it is less than the threshold, returns a blank as the player ID to the main routine (Figure 3) (S19), whereas if it is greater than or equal to the threshold, returns the acquired player ID to the main routine (Figure 3) (S20).

[0037] Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the main software 13 determines whether a player ID has been returned from the player discrimination subroutine (S21), and if a player ID does not exist, it does not generate a player image 10 and distributes the competition image 8 as is to the commentator's or viewer's terminal 5, 6 (S22), and if a player ID exists, it generates a player image 10 corresponding to the player ID (S23), generates a distribution image 11 by combining the competition image 8 and the player image 10, and distributes the distribution image 11 to the commentator's or viewer's terminal 5, 6 (S24).

[0038] Here, the player image 10 is automatically generated using player information 16 and team information 17 pre-stored in the service provider's terminal 2. This player image 10 includes information associated with the virtual player on the computer, such as the career and affiliation of the player, and information corresponding to the player, such as the appearance (photo) and age of the real athlete who is the virtual player, and may be an image generated in a format (display form) common to all players, or an image generated in a format (display form) that differs for each player.

[0039] Furthermore, when generating the distribution image 11, the game image 8 and the player image 10 are automatically synthesized on the screen in a preset arrangement.

[0040] The main software 13 performs the above process for all captured images 14, and ends when there are no more captured images 14.

[0041] In this way, the competition image distribution service uses competition image distribution software 9 consisting of logger software 12 and main software 13 to generate an image (player image 10) containing information about the player (main player) competing in the competition image 8, and distributes a distribution image 11, which is a combination of the competition image 8 and the player image 10, from the service provider terminal 2 to the commentator's terminal 5 and the viewer's terminal 6.

[0042] In the above description, the competition image distribution software 9 is described as being configured with the logger software 12 as a native application that is activated on the commentator's terminal 5 or the viewer's terminal 6, and the main software 13 as a web application that is activated on the service provider's terminal 2, but is not limited to this. The competition image distribution software 9 only needs to be able to distribute a distribution image 11 that is a composite of a competition image 8 and a player image 10, and may be configured so that the logger software 12 and the main software 13 are activated on the service provider's terminal 2, the content provider's terminal 3, the commentator's terminal 5, or the viewer's terminal 6, or may be configured so that the logger software 12 and the main software 13 are activated on a dedicated terminal. Furthermore, the logger software 12 and the main software 13 may be package software or download software, and may be a web application or a native application.

[0043] With conventional competitive image distribution services, viewers and commentators only view images of the competitions being played by virtual players on a computer. This makes it difficult for them to immediately learn from the distributed competitive images information associated with the virtual computer players, such as their careers and affiliations, or information corresponding to the real athletes who play the virtual players, such as their appearance and age. As a result, viewers and commentators tend to perceive the competition as being purely virtual. However, with the above-mentioned competitive image distribution service, viewers and commentators can obtain information about the real athletes corresponding to the players competing in the competitive image 8 from the distributed image 11, making it possible to perceive the competition as being more realistic.

[0044] As described above, the competition image distribution service identifies the player (main player) competing in the competition image 8 based on the competition image 8, generates an image (player image 10) containing information about the main player, generates an image (distribution image 11) by combining the player image 10 with the competition image 8, and distributes the generated distribution image 11 via the communication line network 7.

[0045] Therefore, in the competition image distribution service configured as above, viewers and commentators can immediately obtain information about the players by looking at the player images 10 in the distributed images 11.

[0046] The competition image distribution service generates in advance images (template images 15) predicted to be displayed in the competition image 8 for each of a plurality of players, generates images (cropped images 19) by cutting out a portion of the competition image 8, calculates the image similarity between the plurality of template images 15 and the cropped images 19, and determines the player with the template image 15 having the highest similarity as the main player.

[0047] Therefore, in the competition image distribution service configured as above, the main player can be identified from the competition image 8 with high accuracy.

[0048] In addition, the competition image distribution service is configured to generate an image (captured image 14) by capturing the competition image 8 using a native application (logger software 12), and to generate and distribute a distribution image 11 based on the captured image 14 using a web application (main software 13) only if the captured image 14 exists.

[0049] Therefore, in the competition image distribution service configured as above, the viewer or commentator can select whether or not to composite the player image 10 onto the distribution image 11 by using a native application (logger software 12). [Explanation of symbols]

[0050] 1. Competition image distribution system 2. Service provider's terminal 3 Content provider's terminal 4 Competitor's terminal 5 Commentator's device 6 Viewer's device 7 Communication network 8 Competition images 9 Competition image distribution software 10 Player images 11 Delivery image 12 Logger software 13 Main software 14 Capture image 15 Template image 16 Player information 17 Team Information 18 Display Information 19 Crop Image

Claims

1. In a competition image distribution service that distributes images of players competing (competition images) via a communication network, Based on the competition image, a player (main player) playing in the competition image is identified; Generate an image (player image) containing information about the main player, Generate an image (distribution image) by combining the image of the player with the image of the competition. The generated image is distributed via a communication network. A sports image distribution service characterized by the above.

2. An image (template image) predicted to be displayed in the competition image for each of a plurality of players is generated in advance, A cropped image is generated by cutting out a part of the competition image. Calculating image similarities between a plurality of template images and the cropped images; The player with the most similar template image is determined to be the main player.

2. The competition image distribution service according to claim 1 .

3. It is possible to generate images (captured images) by capturing images of competitions using native applications, Using a web application, a delivery image is generated based on a capture image only when the capture image exists, and the generated image is delivered.

3. The competition image distribution service according to claim 1 or 2.

Images