UK Edition
How Wimbledon is using Artificial Intelligence to enrich the fan experience
Automated highlights, augmented reality and an all-knowing chatbot called ‘Ask Fred’ are among the new innovations from the the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and IBM at this year’s Championships.
The AELTC and IBM announced on Tuesday that they are introducing a raft of innovations for the 2017 tournament in order to engage existing supporters and try to expand the tournament's global audience.
‘Ask Fred’ - named after Britain’s legendary three-time Wimbledon champion Fred Perry - is enabled by IBM’s Watson technology and offers a cognitive assistant to answer questions from fans visiting the event.
Supporters can get information on a range of topics, including where to eat and drink or the nearest place to buy a Wimbledon towel. Three public wi-fi hotspots - also new for 2017 - will facilitate the process, and Wimbledon and IBM will monitor the questions Fred is asked to provide an improved service for next year.
Supporters not at the All England Club but following the tournament will also be offered an improved experience this year. Wimbledon 2017 will see the launch of automated highlights packages, generated using IBM Watson and other video and audio technologies.
An Artificial Intelligence system will pick out the key moments of the match based on analysis of crowd noise, players’ facial expressions and a knowledge of when the clutch moments like set and break points took place. This will dramatically increase the speed at which highlights packages can be put together, and provide followers of the tournament with detailed video content minutes after a match has ended.
There will also be a 360 degree camera on the Wimbledon practice courts to allow supporters to watch their favourite players be put through their paces in real time. Recognition software will pick out who each player is to help supporters identify the players they most want to watch.
Meanwhile in an attempt to help fans know which matches to watch in the action-packed first week, IBM will be using a bespoke ‘competitive margin’ metric, which analyses how well matched two players are to forecast how close their match will be. IBM will also analyse how well each player tends to do in specific situations (when down break point or serving for a set for instance) to give fans a richer experience.
Real-time data will be integrated from a number of sources including courtside statisticians, chair umpires, radar guns, ball position, player location and will also include Twitter for social comment on how the match is playing out.
Sam Seddon, Wimbledon Client & Programme Executive, IBM said of the innovations for 2017: “Cognitive computing is the next revolution in sports technology and working with us, Wimbledon is exposed to the foremost frontier of what technology can do, as we work together to achieve the best possible outcome for the brand and the event.”