Rhode Island Chronicle

Across nearly every industry, artificial intelligence (AI) continues to disrupt the status quo. In sports specifically, AI is transforming how various games are played, monitored, consumed, and—from the perspective of both coaches and students—learned. This is particularly the case with a type of AI known as ‘markerless AI’, designed to provide analytics about movement without the need for any physical sensors placed on the body or equipment. 

Markerless AI has the potential to revolutionize sports analytics. We see this in various apps already, from KinaTrax in baseball to Zenia in yoga. Intel’s 3DAT analyzes over 1,000 biomechanics data points across multiple sport domains. The capability of markerless AI technology to analyze movement in natural settings is one of the most significant advantages, a capability which is becoming increasingly important as motion analysis plays a prominent role in defining the natural environments in which athletes compete. 

Since 2017, Ideas Lab has been exploring the opportunities around and potential for markerless AI within sports. The company has developed several proprietary markerless AI models, built for either enterprise licensing or deployed specifically in a mobile app. In the case of the latter, Ideas Lab targeted golf as its first sport of interest. While there are several markerless AI players in golf today, Ideas Lab’s golf coach app, Xview, is unique in how it analyzes both the biomechanics of the golfer as well as the golf club itself. 

Example of Xview Features

Designed both by and for golf coaches, Xview integrates multiple analytics (everything from club head speed to full skeletonization of the player), a robust video library, annotation tools, and a community of golf coaches, students and other golf stakeholders (for example, equipment manufacturers, media broadcasting, physical therapists and others). In 2022 alone, over 25 million Americans played golf on a golf course, and over 15 million people did so off the course (such as driving ranges or golf stimulators)—with markerless AI technology again being ideal for golf swing analysis regardless of the environment.

While historically there were declining rates in golf participation, this trend is now reversing, with the sport growing in both popularity and accessibility and the cost of participation (while still relatively higher than other sports) declining to a level more suitable for mass market appeal. The golf coach app, Xview, was designed specifically to equally address the needs of mass market consumers as well as players operating at the highest levels of the game.  

More broadly, the mission of Ideas Lab, is to democratize advanced sports analytics, effectively transforming the high-priced analytics capabilities found in, say, a biomechanics labs into a mobile platform that can be accessed anywhere, by anyone, simply with a phone or tablet. Xview works both online and offline (since wifi is not always available on a golf course) and was designed to support golf students and coaches, alike, in understanding the golf swing, avoiding injury, and developing the correct, physical habits one needs to consistently improve over time.

Ideas Lab remains at the forefront of the markerless AI evolution, making it possible for people worldwide to gain a new perspective on how they perceive and control their physical movement—anywhere, anytime. There is no doubt that the continued development of markerless AI will have a significant influence on a wide range of different fields and aspects of everyday life in the years ahead.

Media Contact
Company Name: Ideas Lab
Contact Person: Jesse Hollander
Email: Send Email
Phone: +1 (727) 999 0544
Country: United States
Website: http://www.ideaslab.com/