RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Where’s mercurial John McEnroe when you need him and his outbursts for tennis these days? Well, Big Blue is bringing emotion to its already remarkably detailed coverage of Wimbledon this summer with its artificial intelligence Watson.
“The AI system created by IBM Research scientists and IBM iX consultants auto-curates highlights based on analysis of crowd noise, players’ movements and match data to help simplify the highlight video production process and focus on key moments in the match,” promises IBM and its partner, the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which puts on one of the premier tennis events.
Wow, So who needs ESPN?
IBM also is going to offer a chatbot service linked to Facebook Messenger and other apps in an attempt to garner more fans’ attention.
The goal?
Watson is taking coverage of sports to unprecedented levels of detail. Do we really want that as fans? We will find out.
“Wimbledon and IBM will put AI to work to change the way fans perceive and enjoy the game of tennis,” IBM and the tennis club declared Tuesday.
“By delivering unique and authentic content, in the moment that it happens, we will reveal new insights into what it takes to deliver the supreme feats of athleticism on court as the players aspire to reach the pinnacle of their sport: to be a Wimbledon Champion.”
Hey, if this works, we could be looking at a revolutionary way of viewing sports. Or maybe players will be bringing up Watson between sets to see what Watson – not their coaches – has to say about their performance and offering advice on what the heck to do to save the match.
Of all that IBM is promising, the most intriguing feature to The Skinny is the remarkable depth to which the Watson-Wimbledon doubles team can take fans into a match – the caveat again being IF they want that degree of coverage.
Serena Williams serves at Wimbledon. (Source: Pixabay)
Known as SlamTracker, the updated feature delivers to fans a blend of coverage beyond just live video.
“[F]ans will have an unprecedented level of analysis, insight and engagement as the match unfolds, particularly with mobile devices in mind.,” IBM says.
“Real-time data will be integrated from multiple sources including courtside statisticians, chair umpires, radar guns, ball position, player location and even Twitter for social sentiment.”
Wow. But do you as a fan really want THAT MUCH?
Here’s how IBM explains the degree to which Watson is taking match analysis:
“IBM’s SlamTracker works by analyzing the players’ Cognitive “Keys” to the Match to understand which tactics to look for in a head-to-head match. The aim is to reveal the hidden patterns in player and match dynamics, determining the pressure situations and allowing fans to follow their progress against their ‘keys’ in real time—point by point. The Keys to the Match include insights such as pace-of-play, serve placement spread or baseline proximity. The solution also uses Watson APIs to refine and update the player style based on match data.”
With all this, who needs TV commentators? I mean, really, what else can they add?
Then there is “momentum.”
“We have also added a feature referred to as ‘momentum’ which will be a visual depiction of a match with an indication of which player has the momentum and how that may have shifted over the course of the match,” IBM says.
Again, who needs commentators?
Wimbledon kicked off Monday and runs through July 15. While player emotions still get out of hand sometimes, tennis today is a far cry from the emotional level reached in the days of McEnroe, Jimmy Connors ad other racket-smashing legends. But whatever emotion there is, Watson will be capturing it word by word, grimace by grimace, profanity by – well, watch for bleeps.
Watson has become a fixture at Wimbledon over the past four years. Like IBM’s efforts in other sports, such as The Masters in golf, Big Blue is looking for ways to leverage AI as a means to promote its technology and to expand the use of technology in sport.
Here are some of the highlights being promised by the doubles team of Watson and Wimbledon:
- “Enhanced AI-powered automated video highlights for Wimbledon fans. As a learning system, Watson has been taught to better recognise player emotion increasing the quality of the output, while also increasing speed in turnaround time by 15 minutes. their output within their allowed rights footage.”
- “The Wimbledon Messenger, a social assistant for those off-site, utilising the Watson Assistant chatbot capability and delivered within Facebook Messenger.”
- “IBM rebuilt Wimbledon.com to provide content that refreshes dynamically, making the browsing experience more seamless, but also with greater ability to personalize for different audiences.”
- “AI highlights dashboard … that will populate in near real-time every shot of a match and its excitement level. The AELTC digital team will be able to view and find the most exciting shot of the day or the match and leverage this content across all their digital channels, including social.”
Read more about Wimbledon and IBM online.
And enjoy your strawberries and cream along with the sounds and grimaces and what-have-you of today’s stars.
Too bad McEnroe isn’t taking on Connors – an emotional match Watson would have loved – since AI is getting emotional.
