Ice-hockey puck detection and tracking for video highlighting. Issue 3 (March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yakut, Mehmet; Kehtarnavaz, Nasser
• Is Part Of: Signal, image and video processing. Volume 10:Issue 3(2016)
• Page Start: 527
• Page End: 533
• Publication Date: 2016-03
• Subjects: Ice-hockey puck detection -- Image processing in sports -- Video highlighting; Signal processing -- Digital techniques -- Periodicals; Image processing -- Digital techniques -- Periodicals; Digital video -- Periodicals; 621.3822
• DOI: 10.1007/s11760-015-0764-6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1863-1703

Abstract

Abstract Detection and tracking of ice-hockey pucks are of interest to sports industry as it allows puck highlighting during broadcast. This paper presents the first attempt at using image processing to detect and track ice-hockey pucks. The technique developed consists of using three pieces of information in ice-hockey video frames. A combination of adaptive gray-level thresholding, adaptive temporal thresholding, and trajectory constraints is used to detect and track pucks. The analysis performed indicates the difficulties of this detection problem when using ice-hockey broadcast video sequences. A comparison of the developed technique is provided with table tennis broadcast video sequences to demonstrate its effectiveness.