Player identification in soccer videos

ABSTRACT

A method for the identification of players in soccer videos is presented. The proposed approach exploits the inherent multiple media structure of soccer videos to perform people identification without relying on face recognition. Instead, faces are detected in close-up shots, and then the filmed player is recognized by means of recognition of the number depicted on the frontal part of its jersey, or by detection and interpretation of superimposed closed caption. Players not identified by this process are then assigned to one of the labeled faces by means of a face similarity measure. We present results obtained from soccer videos of the last European Championship for national teams, held in Portugal in June 2004.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
        I.2.10 Vision and Scene Understanding
            Subjects: Video analysis

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.4 Systems
          Subjects: Multimedia databases

General Terms:
Algorithms, Experimentation

Keywords:
automatic annotation, person recognition, sport video analysis