Disney starts sports visualization project

DUBLIN, Ireland, March 18 (UPI) -- Disney Research and an Irish scientific organization called Clarity say they are starting a research project in broadcasting and sports visualization.

Clarity -- part of the Science Foundation Ireland Center for Science Engineering and Technologies and its Center for Sensor Web Development -- said the project will explore the use of multiple cameras, perhaps dozens of them, to enhance the broadcast of major athletic events.

The research, officials said, could be applied widely in sports and broadcasting, yielding new opportunities for ESPN, the multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company that is 80 percent owned by The Walt Disney Co.

The project team consists of researchers from Disney Research Labs in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, along with researchers from Clarity, which is a partnership involving University College Dublin, Dublin City University and the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland.

The researchers said they will initially focus on the sport of field hockey by outfitting University College Dublin's hockey pitch with up to 21 cameras to capture a wide variety of information for evaluation by researchers on a weekly basis.

This project is part of a larger research agreement focused on advanced application-oriented research in sensor networks, wireless motion sensing/tracking, motion capture, WiFi network modeling, and human-computer interaction.