Motion capture sports research scores €2m in EU funding

Life

22 March 2013

A major European motion capture technology project to preserve, promote and develop culturally important sports has been developed in Ireland through a unique collaboration between scientists, sporting bodies, cultural organisations and athletes.

Re-Play is a €2 million research project funded by EU Framework Programme 7 (FP7) and involves scientists from Ireland, Spain, UK, Switzerland and Greece. Their collaborative work will capture the styles of play and skills unique to Gaelic and Basque Games and develop 3D interactive software that will be used to educate future generations about these culturally significant sports.

The project’s Scientific and Technical Coordinator is Prof Noel O’Connor of CLARITY, a partnership between UCD, DCU and Tyndall National Institute and funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).  Re-Play will initially focus on two families of traditional sports of Gaelic football, Hurling and Basque Poleta.

Dr Kieran Moran of DCU’s School of Health and Human Performance will work closely with the GAA and the Basque Sports Federation to determine the key biomechanical aspects to be captured, whilst Prof O’Connor and Dr Mariate Linaza of Spanish research centre Vicomtech-IK4 will coordinate the development of the required technology.

Motion sensors attached to test subjects in a controlled setting will capture the skills and techniques that characterise and differentiate these culturally important sports. Re-Play will then create 3D rendering of the styles of play of elite sportspersons with precision for posterity and to help educate future generations in these games.  In parallel, novel lower-cost technologies using emerging sensors will be developed to enable similar motion capture at local level in order to conceivably put this technology within reach of every club in Ireland or the Basque regions of Spain and France.  The project team will also be seeking out opportunities for the Re-Play project results to be applied to other traditional sports and games across the world that share the same cultural significance and are at risk from mainstream sports.

Prof Noel O’ Connor, principal investigator, CLARITY, said: “The continued development of sensor Web technology allows us to undertake projects of this scale and diversity in a cost-effective way.  Our goal at the end of this project is to create novel 3D software that can be used in every club and community centre across Ireland to allow the user practice new and basic skills and to emulate their national or local heroes in the chosen sport.  This project will also recover techniques of past players from archive footage allowing us to unearth forgotten skills and help us analyse the evolution of the sport.”

Re-Play will bring together eight participants from five countries across Europe including Vicomtech-IK4 and Eusko Jaurlaritza from Spain, Vicon Motion and IN2 Search from the UK, CLARITY and the GAA from Ireland, the University of Geneva, Switzerland and the Centre for Research and Technology, Hellas in Greece.

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