Ball route estimation under heavy occlusion in broadcast soccer video

This paper deals with analysis of broadcast soccer video. Estimation of ball movements is necessary to recognize interesting scenes such as goal scenes. It is, however, sometimes difficult to detect a ball using a simple color-based or shape-based method when the ball overlaps with multiple players and lines. We therefore developed a method of estimating a ball route during such overlaps by considering spatio-temporal relationships among players, lines, and the ball. The method can deal with difficult cases such as one in which a ball disappears at a player and reappears from another player. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.