What technology is used in basketball?
It’s not all about ball-handling: NBA.com has a massive collection of player stats, but the real power of SportVU data lies in its ability to dramatically improve our understanding of basketball players.
The SportsVU cameras are mounted on a post at every NBA arena and can capture image and video each second during basketball action, providing the most detailed analysis ever seen by fans.
Some camera angles offer incredible detail, while others can produce extremely high-definition images that allow us to see how quickly a player jumps from one side of the floor to another, how much space he covers when he turns one way or the other, and whether he’s stepping back or moving forward as he steps up to the basket.
All this information is now available through NBA Stats, NBA Observatory and NBA Video Highlights for free via our website. These tools provide an unprecedented view of what makes players tick and why they’re successful or unsuccessful on a given night.
What technology is used in basketball?
SportVU cameras are used to track shooting and ball-handling data. Some of the more advanced uses include being able to track player’s movements during a game, which is not possible with conventional technology.
The use of SportVU cameras has greatly influenced how we analyze basketball – for better or for worse. In the past, it was just about points and rebounds. Now, it is more about shot efficiency, shot attempts and field goal percentage (FG%). This means that if you want to know who is going to score in the game, it isn’t just about where they are going to put the ball but how they are going to put it there.
For example, let’s look at someone like Michael Jordan:
Boy, Jordan had a great year last year. He made all of his threes and got a lot of steals too!
But if we look at his career numbers over time we see that he doesn’t shoot as much nor does he get as many steals.
So what gives? Why did MJ lose some of his efficiency? How can we know what kind of player Michael Jordan is? And why do we need so much data to know this kind of thing? The answers are simple: there are two types of players in the NBA – those who make shots, and those who make plays. If a player makes shots or gets steals then they will be very efficient – they will make shot after shot until their team wins or loses because their team always needs them to play well…. Or so everybody thinks…. But there are players out there who score points but don’t get any assists or steals because they aren’t good enough at creating plays for themselves; these players aren’t going to have good enough games in order for their teams to win… So then you have two options: either your team has other players who score points but don’t create plays for themselves; or your team has other players whose offense doesn’t include creating plays for themselves… Which means that your team isn’t good at making shots – i.e., offense-related stats would be meaningless… Or so you go with defense-related stats
On-Demand Viewing technology in basketball
SportVU cameras have revolutionized the way basketball is analyzed. Long gone are the days when a player was judged simply on points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals and field-goal percentage.
SportVU’s On-Demand Viewing Technology is used for analyzing players’ performance on individual possessions — whether they’re playing help defense or scoring from behind the arc. SportVU cameras have revolutionized the way basketball is analyzed. Long gone are the days when a player was judged simply on points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals and field-goal percentage. SportVU technology has also helped with reducing injuries in NBA players.
Wearable Technology in basketball
The introduction of SportVU cameras in the NBA has made it possible to analyze every aspect of the game — from a player’s body position, ball movement and shot selection to their overall effectiveness.
Many are surprised to discover that most data is only available for games that are being broadcast on television. While this is true for many sports, basketball is by far the most popular men’s professional team sport in the world and there are thousands of games being played each year — averaging nearly 300 per team. This means that a significant amount of information exists on those who play basketball but not on those who watch it.
But what if we could get access to all this data as we watch it? The SportVU cameras can provide this kind of access in real time, providing our eyes with data that allows us to make educated guesses about what is happening on the court without actually having to take a step off the bench. The big advantage of SportVU technology is that it is wireless and portable, meaning it can be used at home or at practice. It doesn’t require an Internet connection or any special software (compared to similar platforms such as Kinect), so you don’t need to shut down your computer for your video consumption needs (and you don’t have to limit yourself to watching broadcasts).
The SportVU camera also provides incredibly detailed images, which can be further analyzed using special software (and other services) if you want. For example, I used SportVU technology at my company early last year when we were first able to observe how people use their mobile phones while driving. We could see how they looked and talked while talking on their phone while driving (a common occurrence), compared with how they looked when they were not using their mobile phone (not so common). The results showed us a significant difference between those people who were constantly using their phone while driving and those who weren’t.
For more information about SportVU technology check out http://www.sportvu.com/software
Conclusion
SportVU cameras were invented by a company called SportViz . They are a well-funded startup that has been working on technology for over 20 years. It is worth pointing out that this technology is still used today: Hockey analytics rely heavily on SportVU data captured by cameras positioned throughout the ice surface; some basketball fans use this data to identify players at individual positions.
SportVU’s live video footage is used to enable real-time tracking of players and their movements. As a result it enables an accurate assessment of where a player will end up in relation to his teammates, opponents and even other players in the area – allowing coaches and analysts to detect any potential weakness in positioning or movement.
The first SportVU camera was installed at Madison Square Garden in New York City in February 1997. Since then it has been installed at all 64 NHL arenas as well as at various sports events including the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, European Club Soccer Championships & World Cup soccer finals and Olympic football matches since 2005.
The data captured by SportVU cameras can be used to create highly detailed 3D models of any given event that can be displayed using handheld devices such as mobile phones or tablets. This allows data collection over several days or even weeks when game-related activities take place – for example, individual players’ moves during a particular play can be calculated based on where they were on their body relative to each other after every shot was released from a particular area of the court .
The main advantage of SportVU’s technology is that it only requires two pieces of equipment: one camera and one software package called the “Sport Vision System”. The camera captures live video from two specific locations; however it also includes sensors which take analyses from these two locations and then creates three separate images depicting not just what is happening but also where each player is located during each action along with information about how much time elapsed between each action – this allows each individual image to be analysed separately before being combined into an overall view of what happened during a single play – enabling multiple views of events such as shots taken during different periods — without having to re-record multiple plays simultaneously (a process called “matching”).