Enhancing Multi-Camera Gymnast Tracking Through Domain Knowledge Integration

Abstract

We present a robust multi-camera gymnast tracking, which has been applied at international gymnastics championships for gymnastics judging. Despite considerable progress in multi-camera tracking algorithms, tracking gymnasts presents unique challenges: 1) due to space restrictions, only a limited number of cameras can be installed in the gymnastics stadium; and 2) due to variations in lighting, background, uniforms, and occlusions, multi-camera gymnast detection may fail in certain views and only provide valid detections from two opposing views. These factors complicate the accurate determination of a gymnast’s 3D trajectory using conventional multi-camera triangulation. To alleviate this issue, we incorporate gymnastics domain knowledge into our tracking solution. Given that a gymnast’s 3D center typically lies within a predefined vertical plane during much of their performance, we can apply a ray-plane intersection to generate coplanar 3D trajectory candidates for opposing-view detections. More specifically, we propose a novel cascaded data association (DA) paradigm that employs triangulation to generate 3D trajectory candidates when cross-view detections are sufficient, and resort to the ray-plane intersection when they are insufficient. Consequently, coplanar candidates are used to compensate for uncertain trajectories, thereby minimizing tracking failures. The robustness of our method is validated through extensive experimentation, demonstrating its superiority over existing methods in challenging scenarios. Furthermore, our gymnastics judging system, equipped with this tracking method, has been successfully applied to recent Gymnastics World Championships, earning significant recognition from the International Gymnastics Federation.