System used for real time acquistion of data pertaining to persons in motion

A system for real time acquisition and processing of data pertaining to the position and/or physical performance of one or a multitude of persons in motion on a field, in particular athletes in motion on a game field characterized by the fact that it includes:

• (a) devices used to acquire in real time the instantaneous individual positions of every person in the filed;
• (b) devices used for the digital processing associated with said acquisition devices to determine a set of digital Values which are representative of the physical performances of said persons based on said instantaneous position information;
• (c) interface devices connected to said digital processing devices responsible for preparing the digital Values which are representative of the physical performances as well as for their graphic representation;
• (d) devices used to acquire and process the instantaneous position of an object in particular a ball on a game field with said devices being linked to acquisition device and processing device which are used to acquire and process the position of the athletes in order to determine a set of digital Values which are representative of the interactions between said athletes and said ball, said devices used to acquire the instantaneous position of an object being shape-recognizing digital video devices;
• the instantaneous position of the object being determined through the recognition of the shape of the object at a certain location on the field by means of a comparison with a memorized shape of said object;
• and said digital video acquisition devices including at least two fixed constant focal length digital video cameras aimed in direction of the field arranged so as to have their optical axes clearly perpendicular to each other;
• the digital output of each camera being connected to the input of an electronic card used to store the instantaneous digital image and to the input of an electronic card which stores the image which immediately precedes it;
• the output of each of said memory cards being connected to a module which calculates the instantaneous successive coordinates or the trajectory of an object within a fixed reference associated with the field.