Disney & Clarity Launch Sports Viualisation Project | The Irish Film & Television Network

The research will explore ways in which use of multiple cameras can enhance the high-end broadcast of major athletic events. It will also examine how such systems can provide opportunities for less well-known sports to develop larger fan bases, for youth sports to be viewed remotely, and for how enhanced visuals and statistics can be used by coaches. The research could be applied widely in sports and broadcasting and could yield new opportunities for ESPN, one of the world’s leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company which is 80% owned by The Walt Disney Company.

“We are very excited to be working with CLARITY in this research effort,” Dr Joe Marks, Vice President of Disney Research has said, “Disney Research was created to determine how the next generation of technologies will transform the businesses of The Walt Disney Company. This project could lead to groundbreaking broadcast technologies and opportunities for ESPN and The Walt Disney Company.”

The initiative is aimed at enhancing the work of Sports Directors by providing additional camera coverage resulting in the ability to cover wide ranges of sports and athletic events in a cost effective manner. The project team consists of researchers from Disney Research Labs in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh and researchers in CLARITY: The Centre for Sensor Web Technologies. CLARITY is a partnership between University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin City University and Tyndall National Institute (TNI) Cork.

The team will initially focus on the sport of field hockey for its analysis by outfitting the UCD hockey pitch with up to 21 cameras in order to capture a wide variety of information for evaluation by researchers on a weekly basis. At the project launch on 18 March, 2010, the camera system will be observed ‘in action’ as the project’s researchers and film crew capture the action of the Ladies A Exhibition Match between Ireland and Germany.

This initiative represents the fruition of extensive work,” states Professor Gregory O’Hare, a Principal Investigator within CLARITY. “It is truly pioneering and establishes a state of the art facility based at the National Hockey Stadium at University College Dublin (UCD).”

Artie Kempner, the Emmy Award-winning Sports Director, will provide practical feedback to the research team and will allow the research to be continually pushed to provide professional broadcast quality results, and to create a compelling story for each event. Mr. Kempner traveled to Dublin last month to actively engage in training the project’s film crew. He has returned for today’s project launch, and will provide feedback and broadcasting insight for the research team on an ongoing basis.

Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan T.D., sees the initiative as more then just a stand-alone project. “The announcement of a new collaboration between Disney Research and CLARITY represents a very exciting development for innovation in Ireland. The Walt Disney Company is the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerate, and its decision to form a strategic partnership with the Science Foundation Ireland-funded CLARITY Centre is an endorsement of the expertise and pioneering work being carried out in our laboratories and third-level institutions.”

This collaborative research project is supported by Disney Research, University College Dublin, Dublin City University and the IDA. This work is part of a larger collaborative research agreement between Disney Research and CLARITY, where the teams will conduct advanced application-oriented research in sensor networks, wireless motion sensing/tracking, motion capture, WiFi network modeling, and human-computer interaction.

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