A baseball exploration system using spatial pattern recognition

Abstract

Despite a lot of research efforts in baseball video processing, little work has been done in analyzing the detailed process and ball movement of the batting content. This paper proposes a novel system to automatically summarize the progress of each batting in baseball videos. Utilizing the strictly-defined specifications of the baseball field, the system recognizes the spatial patterns in each frame and identifies what region of the baseball field is currently focused. Finally, an annotation string which abstracts the batting content is generated. With the annotation strings, the system is able to make descriptions and provide exploration for baseball videos, so that users can be given a further insight into the game quickly. The experiments on broadcast baseball videos of MLB and JPB show promising results.