Radar-Image Synchronization for Precise Sports Event Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image-based event detection systems in sports are limited by camera frame rate accuracy and blurring issues, making precise timing of events difficult, especially for fast-moving objects, and are often obstructed by intervening objects, leading to inaccurate event detection.
Innovation Solution
A system combining sensor data from radar and image data, where the radar provides precise timing of events, allowing the computing device to synchronize and retrieve corresponding image frames from multiple cameras, even if the event is not directly visible, to generate composite images with enhanced accuracy and clarity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If image-based event detection systems use camera frame rate to detect events, then the system can capture visual information, but the timing accuracy is limited by the frame rate and cannot achieve precise event timing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines radar and camera systems into an integrated event detection system. The radar provides precise timing information for events, while the camera captures visual information. By merging these two systems and synchronizing their data, the invention achieves both high timing accuracy and visual context without requiring the camera alone to provide precise timing.
Solution Approach 2:
The radar acts as an intermediary that provides accurate timing information for events. Instead of relying on the camera's frame rate to detect event timing, the system uses radar to detect events and their precise timestamps, then uses these timestamps to select and synchronize corresponding camera frames, thereby achieving subframe timing accuracy.
2Measurement precision
If the camera exposure time is increased to reduce blurring, then image quality improves, but the timing resolution decreases and fast-moving objects become blurred
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges radar timing data with camera image data to overcome the limitations of each individual system. The radar provides precise event timing without being affected by camera exposure issues, while the camera provides visual information. By combining these data sources and synchronizing them through time calibration, the system achieves both image clarity and precise timing resolution.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a temporal copy or mapping between radar event timestamps and camera frame timestamps through time calibration. This allows the precise timing information from the radar to be associated with the corresponding camera frames, effectively copying the timing accuracy to the visual data without requiring changes to the camera exposure parameters.
3Reliability
If a limited number of cameras are used in image-based systems, then the system complexity is reduced, but many events are obscured by intervening objects and cannot be accurately detected
Solution Approach 1:
The radar serves as an intermediary detection system that can detect events regardless of visual obstructions. Since radar waves can penetrate through many intervening objects that block camera views, the radar provides reliable event detection information that is not limited by line-of-sight requirements, thereby improving event detection accuracy without adding more cameras.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent substitutes the mechanical/optical detection system (cameras) with an electromagnetic wave-based detection system (radar) for event timing detection. Radar waves can pass through objects that block visible light, allowing the system to detect events that would be obscured from camera view, thereby improving reliability without increasing the number of cameras.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables precise timing of events with subframe accuracy, overcoming the limitations of image-based systems by using radar for temporal precision and combining image data to create clear, comprehensive composite images that illustrate key moments in sports events, even when obstructed or not directly visible.
Implementation Method 1
a sensor capturing sensor data... detect an occurrence of a first event in the sensor data and extract a first time at which the first event occurred
Data Source
AI summary
A system includes a sensor capturing sensor data and an imager capturing imager data in combination with a computing device configured to time calibrate the sensor and the imager, detect an occurrence of a first event in the sensor data and extract a first time at which the first event occurred, and identify a first image in the image data having a capture time correlating to the first time at which the first event occurred in combination with retrieving the first image for insertion into a composite image including further image data combined with at least a portion of the first image depicting the first event.