Since it first appeared in the field of sports, artificial intelligence has become more and more important and plays an important role at many levels: recruitment, training, performance analysis, games, injury prevention… As part of its “Launchpad” program, the NBA has turned to Uplift Labs’ solution for capturing body movements and analyzing them to improve player performance.

Like all major sports federations, the NBA began by recording its games and using the data to produce statistics. Then in the early 2010s, it turned to Stats Perform, one of the leaders in sports AI and data technology, whose SportVu cameras later allowed it to analyze different elements of the game in real time. Earlier this year, it selected Uplift Labs for its solution to capture body movements and visualize them in 3D, which is already used by some MLB (Major League Baseball) franchises.

The Uplift Capture solution

Co-founded by Sukemasa Kabayama, Jonathan Wills and Rahul Rajan, Palo Alto, California-based Uplift Labs was founded in 2017. The AI-based Uplift Capture solution provides analytics to improve performance while minimizing injury in sports, fitness and everyday life. The company’s director of performance is none other than Keke Lyles, previously the director of performance for the NBA team Golden State Warriors. He helped Stephen Curry, the famous player, to avoid his problems with ankle injuries.

Very often, data is collected and analyzed by embedding sensors in players’ equipment, gear or clothing. The Uplift Capture solution requires only two smartphones and tripods. The movements of the player(s) are not captured during a match but filmed in the gym or on the field by the coach. Both videos are used to recreate the athlete’s movement in full 3D, the biomechanical images are of high quality according to the co-founders. The web dashboard allows for analysis of the raw video synchronized with the 3D visualization and motion data.

A single-phone solution is expected to be available to anyone soon that will provide the intelligence to allow users to interpret the data. In the meantime, coaches can use Uplift Capture to improve performance and avoid some of the injuries of their players.

Translated from Sport : la NBA mise sur l’IA et opte pour la solution Uplift Capture