Irish researchers serve up an ace

(L-R) Proinsias Gallagher, Noel O'Connor and Philip Kelly

DCU researchers are working to bring sophisticated sensing technology to a new generation of Irish tennis players and coaches.

Scientists in the CLARITY research centre, based at DCU are working with Tennis Ireland, to use advanced visual and location-based sensing to develop a range of new internet-enabled coaching tools.

"We have installed nine cameras around a tennis court in Hampstead Park at DCU where the players train, providing complete coverage of the court", said Prof. Noel O'Connor, one of the lead researchers on the project. "This is linked to a localisation system that allows us to automatically track the players movement to within an accuracy of 15cms”.

The athlete wears a sensor, which enables the cameras track their every move on court. Immediately after a game the player and coach can go online and view the performance, scrutinising his or her technique from virtually any angle.

According to Gary Cahill, a coach in Tennis Ireland, “the coaches and athletes in Tennis Ireland are extremely excited by the possibilities offered by this new technology. Previously if I wanted to improve a player’s serve I had to video-tape her using a single camcorder. With the CLARITY system, I can view the player's technique from any angle and that allows me to provide much more detailed and useful feedback".

Prof. Alan Smeaton, CLARITY's Deputy Director added, "The system also indexes and archives the video data so that the player can build up their own personalised video of how their technique improves over time."

CLARITY, the Centre for Sensor Web Technologies is a €16.4m research centre funded by Science Foundation Ireland. CLARITY is a partnership between Dublin City University and University College Dublin, supported by research at the Tyndall National Institute (TNI) Cork. CLARITY focuses on two areas for demonstration of sensor web technologies - sensor networks for the environment and sensor networks for personal health, including sports.

"This project is a great example of the multi-faceted nature of CLARITY. It brings together multiple academic disciplines, with engineers, computer scientists, chemists and sports scientists all working with each other on a cutting edge research project." said Prof. Barry Smyth, CLARITY Director who is based at UCD.