Automatic Registration of Footsteps in Contact Regions for Reactive Agility Training in Sports
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Date
2020-03-19
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI
Abstract
In collective sports, reactive agility training methodologies allow to evaluate and improve the
player performance, being able to consider a mixture of technical, tactical, physical, and psychological
abilities, similarly to real game-play situations. In this article, we present a new methodology for
reactive agility training (neural training), the technological setup for the methodology, and a new
footstep tracking algorithm, as the key element for automating the speed data gathering process,
necessary for obtaining the relevant variables of the neural training approach. This new methodology
is oriented to accurately measure two of the most relevant variables for reactive agility training:
total response time (sprint time) and response correctness, related to a stimuli sequence presented
to a player. The stimuli were designed to properly represent realistic competitive conditions for
player training, contextualized to soccer. In order to automate the gathering process, a new computer
vision based automatic footstep detection algorithm has been integrated to the system. The algorithm
combines Kalman Filters, segmentation techniques, and perspective geometry, for obtaining highly
precise detections of the moment a relevant footstep occurs in real-time, reaching a precision higher
than 97%. Plus, the algorithm does not require any special marker, invasive sensor, or clothing constraint
on the player.
Description
Keywords
Step detection, Foot tracking, Reactive agility evaluation