Jump Shot and Athletic Activity Analysis System

Abstract

Techniques are described where a computer or mobile device performs video analysis of a person performing a basketball jump shot. The computer or mobile device performs video analysis to (1) determine whether the basketball jump shot resulted in the basketball going through a hoop as a made shot, (2) determine metric data for the basketball jump shot based on a plurality of pixels within a plurality of the frames of the video data, and (3) repeat the made shot and metric data determinations for a plurality of basketball jump shots by the person to thereby track the made shots and the metric data for those shots. The metric data may include knee bend data, release point data, and/or arc angle data for the shots.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer program product for video analysis of a basketball jump shot, the computer program product comprising:
 a plurality of processor-executable instructions configured for processing video data, the video data comprising a plurality of frames of a person performing the basketball jump shot with a basketball, each frame comprising a plurality of pixels, the instructions being resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and being configured, upon execution by a processor, to:
 perform pixel processing on a plurality of the frames of the video data to (1) determine whether the basketball jump shot resulted in the basketball going through a hoop as a made shot based on pixels within one or more frames of the video data that depicts the basketball relative to the hoop, (2) determine metric data for the basketball jump shot, wherein the metric data comprises at least two members of the group consisting of (i) data relating to a knee bend for the basketball jump shot based on pixels within one or more frames of the video data that depict the person in a base phase of the basketball jump shot, (ii) data relating to a release point for the basketball jump shot based on pixels within one or more frames of the video data that depict the person in a release phase of the basketball jump shot, and (iii) data relating to an arc angle for the basketball jump shot based on pixels within a plurality of frames of the video data that depict the basketball in flight; and 
 repeat the pixel processing for a plurality of basketball jump shots by the person to thereby track the made shots and the metric data for the plurality of basketball jump shots by the person. 
   
     
     
         2 . The computer program product of  claim 1 , wherein metrics data comprises the knee bend data and the release point data. 
     
     
         3 . The computer program product of  claim 2 , wherein the release point data comprises data indicative of how quickly the person released the basketball for the basketball jump shots. 
     
     
         4 . The computer program product of  claim 2 , wherein the release point data comprises data indicative of a release pinnacle for the basketball jump shots. 
     
     
         5 . The computer program product of  claim 2 , wherein the metrics data further comprises the arc angle data. 
     
     
         6 . The computer program product of  claim 1 , wherein the metrics data comprises the knee bend data and the arc angle data. 
     
     
         7 . The computer program product of  claim 1 , wherein the metrics data comprises the release point data and the arc angle data. 
     
     
         8 . The computer program product of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of processor-executable instructions are further configured to:
 compare body positions of the person in a plurality of the frames to reference skeletons that represent a fundamental basketball jump shot in the release phase and the base phase;   determine deviations for the basketball jump shots from the fundamental basketball jump shot based on the comparisons; and   track the determined deviations in a database.   
     
     
         9 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein the plurality of processor-executable instructions are further configured to:
 correlate the determined deviations with the made shot data to identify a plurality of the determined deviations that are outcome-determinative.   
     
     
         10 . The computer program product of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of processor-executable instructions are embodied by a mobile application for download onto a smart phone or tablet computer. 
     
     
         11 . The computer program product of  claim 10 , wherein the mobile application is configured to obtain the video data from a camera on the smart phone or tablet computer. 
     
     
         12 . A method for video analysis of a basketball jump shot, the method comprising:
 processing video data by a processor, the video data comprising a plurality of frames of a person performing the basketball jump shot with a basketball, each frame comprising a plurality of pixels, wherein the video data processing step comprises:
 the processor determining whether the basketball jump shot resulted in the basketball going through a hoop as a made shot based on a plurality of pixels within one or more frames of the video data that depicts the basketball relative to the hoop; 
 the processor determining metric data for the basketball jump shot based on a plurality of pixels within a plurality of the frames of the video data, wherein the metric data comprises at least two members of the group consisting of (i) data relating to a knee bend for the basketball jump shot based on pixels within one or more frames of the video data that depict the person in a base phase of the basketball jump shot, (ii) data relating to a release point for the basketball jump shot based on pixels within one or more frames of the video data that depict the person in a release phase of the basketball jump shot, and (iii) data relating to an arc angle for the basketball jump shot based on pixels within a plurality of frames of the video data that depict the basketball in flight; and 
 repeating the made shot determining step and the metric data determining step for a plurality of basketball jump shots by the person to thereby track the made shots and the metric data for the plurality of basketball jump shots by the person. 
   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors. 
     
     
         14 . A system for video analysis of a basketball jump shot, the system comprising:
 a processor configured for processing video data, the video data comprising a plurality of frames of a person performing the basketball jump shot with a basketball, each frame comprising a plurality of pixels, wherein the processor is configured to:
 determine whether the basketball jump shot resulted in the basketball going through a hoop as a made shot based on a plurality of pixels within one or more frames of the video data that depicts the basketball relative to the hoop; 
 determine metric data for the basketball jump shot based on a plurality of pixels within a plurality of the frames of the video data, wherein the metric data comprises at least two members of the group consisting of (i) data relating to a knee bend for the basketball jump shot based on pixels within one or more frames of the video data that depict the person in a base phase of the basketball jump shot, (ii) data relating to a release point for the basketball jump shot based on pixels within one or more frames of the video data that depict the person in a release phase of the basketball jump shot, and (iii) data relating to an arc angle for the basketball jump shot based on pixels within a plurality of frames of the video data that depict the basketball in flight; and 
 repeat the made shot determination and the metric data determination for a plurality of basketball jump shots by the person to thereby track the made shots and the metric data for the plurality of basketball jump shots by the person. 
   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 a camera for cooperation with the processor, the camera configured to generate the video data.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the processor and the camera are part of a mobile device. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the mobile device comprises a smart phone. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the processor is part of a server. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the metric data comprises the knee bend data and the release point data. 
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the metric data comprises the release point data and the arc angle data. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the metric data comprises the knee bend data and the arc angle data.