Fantasy Sports Player Identification via Object Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fantasy sports users find it difficult to identify when members of their fantasy teams appear in sports programming, as traditional commentary and features focus on teams rather than individual players, making it hard to track player performance during live sports events.
Innovation Solution
A media application that uses object recognition to identify players in sports programming, compares them to a user's fantasy team roster, and visually distinguishes or provides additional information about team members, such as statistics and commentary, on user devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If traditional commentary and statistical analyses are displayed on-screen during a game, then team-level information is provided to users, but users cannot easily identify when members of their fantasy team are appearing in the sports programming
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the sports programming content by identifying and tracking individual players within the team context. The object recognition module divides the visual field to detect specific players, and the system separately manages fantasy team roster data, creating a segmented approach that enables player-level identification without requiring complete system redesign
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary object recognition module that acts as a mediator between the sports programming content and the fantasy sports team data. This module detects player characteristics (jersey numbers, positions) and facilitates comparison with fantasy team rosters, enabling player identification without direct integration of complex fantasy sports logic into the broadcast system
2Measurement precision
If object recognition is used to identify players in real-time, then player identification accuracy is improved, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-loading and storing fantasy team roster data, player statistics, and team configurations before the sports event begins. The object recognition module is pre-configured with team colors, jersey styles, and player attribute ranges, enabling faster real-time processing during the actual event without requiring complex computations for basic identification
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial action by focusing object recognition efforts only on relevant visual elements (jersey numbers, player positions, team colors) rather than analyzing entire frames comprehensively. The comparison process selectively checks only fantasy team members who are likely to appear, rather than evaluating all players in the sport, reducing processing overhead while maintaining identification accuracy
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are described herein for a media application that indicates to a user when members of his or her fantasy sports team appear in sports programming displayed on a user device. In addition, the media application may display additional information (e.g., statistics, commentary, highlights, etc.) that is particular to members of the fantasy sports team of the user.