Automated or assisted umpiring of baseball game using computer vision

A system for automating umpiring or automatically assisting umpiring of a baseball game or a softball game comprising:

• at least two cameras configured to capture images of a ball;
• at least one processor in communication with the at least two cameras, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
• determine a location of a strike zone based on at least one image of a batter;
• add a visual representation of the strike zone to a video or an image from the video to illustrate or indicate the location of the strike zone on the video or the image by altering a video file or an image file associated with the video or the image;
• associate the location of the strike zone with the batter and save the location of the strike zone for reuse for subsequent at-bats for the batter;
• track locations of the ball;
• determine at least one location of the ball in three-dimensional (3D) space;
• determine whether at least one location of the ball intersected with the strike zone based on the determined location of the strike zone and the tracked locations of the ball;
• and
• transmit an auditory indication and/or a visual indication of whether the ball intersected with the strike zone;
• wherein the visual representation of the strike zone comprises a 3D box representing a 3D strike zone.

At least one processor for use in automating umpiring or automatically assisting umpiring of a baseball or softball game comprising:

• at least one processor in communication with at least two cameras and at least one processor non-transitory readable storage device having processor readable code, wherein the at least one processor is operable to:
• determine a location of a strike zone of a batter based on at least one image of the batter and the determined location of a home plate;
• add a visual representation of the strike zone to a video including the batter or an image from the video including the batter to illustrate or indicate the location of the strike zone on the image or the video;
• associate the location of the strike zone with the batter and save the location of the strike zone for reuse for subsequent at-bats for the batter;
• determine parameters, including direction and velocity and/or acceleration, of a ball based on one or more images of the ball generated by the at least one two cameras;
• project a trajectory of the ball based on the determined parameters of the ball;
• determine whether the projected trajectory of the ball intersects with the strike zone;
• and
• transmit an auditory indication of whether the ball is projected to intersect with the strike zone to a user device of a determining individual;
• wherein the at least one processor adds the visual representation of the strike zone to the video including the batter or an image from the video including the batter to illustrate or indicate the location of the strike zone on the image or the video after receiving the video or the image from the video over a network.

A system for automating umpiring or automatically assisting umpiring of a baseball game or a softball game comprising:

• at least two cameras configured to capture images of a ball;
• at least one processor in network communication with the at least two cameras, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
• determine a location of a strike zone based on at least one frontal image of the batter;
• add a visual representation of the strike zone to a video including the batter or an image from the video including the batter to illustrate or indicate the location of the strike zone on the video or the image;
• associate the location of the strike zone with the batter and save the location of the strike zone for reuse for subsequent at-bats for the batter;
• track locations of the ball;
• determine at least one location of the ball in three-dimensional (3D) space;
• determine whether at least one location of the ball intersected with the strike zone based on the determined location of the strike zone and the tracked locations of the ball;
• determine whether a strike or a ball occurred;
• and
• transmit an auditory indication and/or a visual indication of whether the determined strike or the determined ball occurred;
• wherein the visual representation of the strike zone comprises a 3D box representing a 3D strike zone.