Proceedings of Mathsport international 2017 conference

Proceedings of MathSport International 2017 Conference, held in the Botanical Garden of the University of Padua, June 26-28, 2017. MathSport International organizes biennial conferences dedicated to all topics where mathematics and sport meet. Topics include: performance measures, optimization of sports performance, statistics and probability models, mathematical and physical models in sports, competitive strategies, statistics and probability match outcome models, optimal tournament design and scheduling, decision support systems, analysis of rules and adjudication, econometrics in sport, analysis of sporting technologies, financial valuation in sport, e-sports (gaming), betting and sports

Activity Recognition for Quality Assessment of Batting Shots in Cricket using a Hierarchical Representation

Quality assessment in cricket is a complex task that is performed by understanding the combination of individual activities a player is able to perform and by assessing how well these activities are performed. We present a framework for inexpensive and accessible, automated recognition of cricketing shots. By means of body-worn inertial measurement units, movements of batsmen are recorded, which are then analysed using a parallelised, hierarchical recognition system that automatically classifies relevant categories of shots as required for assessing batting quality. Our system then generates meaningful visualisations of key performance parameters, including feet positions, attack/defence, and distribution of shots around the ground. These visualisations are the basis for objective skill assessment thereby focusing on specific personal improvement points as identified through our system. We evaluated our framework through a deployment study where 6 players engaged in batting exercises. Based on the recorded movement data we could automatically identify 20 classes of unique batting shot components with an average F1-score greater than 88%. This analysis is the basis for our detailed analysis of our study participants’ skills. Our system has the potential to rival expensive vision-based systems but at a fraction of the cost

The Measurement of Sporting Performance using Mobile Physiological Monitoring Technology

Coaches are constantly seeking more ecologically valid and reliable data to improve professional sporting performance. Using unobtrusive, valid and reliable mobile physiological monitoring devices may assist in achieving this aim. For example, there is limited information regarding professional fast bowlers in cricket and understanding this role during competitive in-match scenarios rather than in simulated bowling events could enhance coaching and physical conditioning practices. The BioharnessTM is a mobile monitoring device and assesses 5 variables (Heart rate [HR], Breathing frequency [BF], Accelerometry [ACC], Skin temperature [ST] and Posture [P]) simultaneously. Therefore, the aims of this research were to assess the effectiveness of the BioharnessTM mobile monitoring device during professional sporting performance using fast bowlers in cricket and this was to be achieved in five research studies. Study 1 presented the physiological profile of professional cricketers reporting fitness data with other comparable professional athletes, with a specific interest in fast bowlers who were to be the focus of this work. The 2nd and 3rd study assessed the reliability and validity of the BioharnessTM through controlled laboratory based assessment. For validity, strong relationships (r = .89 to .99, P .89, P 79.2 beat.min-1) and BF (> 54.7 br.min-1). ACC presented excellent precision (r = .94, P .97, P 10 km.h-1) variables became more erroneous. HR and ACC were deemed as valid and reliable to be assessed during in-match sporting performance in study 5. This final study sought to utilise and assess the BioharnessTM device within professional cricket, assessing physiological responses of fast-medium bowlers within a competitive sporting environment, collected over three summer seasons. The BioharnessTM presented different physiological profiles for One Day (OD) and Multi Day (MD) cricket with higher mean HR (142 vs 137 beats.min-1, P < .05) and ACC (Peak acceleration (PkA) 227.6 vs 214.9 ct.episode-1, P < .01) values in the shorter match format. Differences in data for the varying match states of bowling (HR, 142 vs 137 beats.min-1, PkA 234.1 vs 226.6 ct.episode-1), between over (HR, 129 vs 120beats.min-1, PkA 136.4 vs 126.5 ct.episode-1) and fielding (115 vs 106 beats.min-1, PkA 1349.9 vs 356.1 ct.episode-1) were reported across OD and MD cricket. Therefore, this information suggests to the coach that the training regimes for fast bowlers should be specific for the different demands specific to the format of the game employed. Relationships between in-match BioharnessTM data and bowling performance were not clearly established due to the complexities of uncontrollable variables within competitive cricket. In conclusion, the BioharnessTM has demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability in the laboratory and the field setting for all variables (Heart rate, Breathing frequency, Accelerometry, Skin temperature and Posture) but with limitations for heart rate and breathing frequency at the more extreme levels of performance. Furthermore, taking these limitations into account it has successfully been utilised to assess performance and provide further insight into the physiological demands in the professional sport setting. Therefore, this work suggests that coaches and exercise scientists working together should seek to utilise new mobile monitoring technology to access unique insights in to sporting performance which may be unobtainable in the laboratory or a simulated field based event

A Statistical Investigation into Factors Affecting Results of One Day International Cricket Matches

The effect of playing “home” or “away” and many other factors, such as batting first or second, winning or losing the toss, have been hypothesised as influencing the outcome of major cricket matches. Anecdotally, it has often been noted that Subcontinental sides (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) tend to perform much better on the Subcontinent than away from it, whilst England do better in Australia during cooler, damper Australian Summers than during hotter, drier ones. In this paper, focusing on results of men’s One Day International (ODI) matches involving England, we investigate the extent to which a number of factors – including playing home or away (or the continent of the venue), batting or fielding first, winning or losing the toss, the weather conditions during the game, the condition of the pitch, and the strength of each team’s top batting and bowling resources – influence the outcome of matches. By employing a variety of Statistical techniques, we find that the continent of the venue does appear to be a major factor affecting the result, but winning the toss does not. We then use the factors identified as significant in an attempt to build a Binary Logistic Regression Model that will estimate the probability of England winning at various stages of a game. Finally, we use this model to predict the results of some England ODI games not used in training the model

Chorusing, synchrony, and the evolutionary functions of rhythm

A central goal of biomusicology is to understand the biological basis of human musicality. One approach to this problem has been to compare core components of human musicality (relative pitch perception, entrainment, etc.) with similar capacities in other animal species. Here we extend and clarify this comparative approach with respect to rhythm. First, whereas most comparisons between human music and animal acoustic behavior have focused on spectral properties (melody and harmony), we argue for the central importance of temporal properties, and propose that this domain is ripe for further comparative research. Second, whereas most rhythm research in non-human animals has examined animal timing in isolation, we consider how chorusing dynamics can shape individual timing, as in human music and dance, arguing that group behavior is key to understanding the adaptive functions of rhythm. To illustrate the interdependence between individual and chorusing dynamics, we present a computational model of chorusing agents relating individual call timing with synchronous group behavior. Third, we distinguish and clarify mechanistic and functional explanations of rhythmic phenomena, often conflated in the literature, arguing that this distinction is key for understanding the evolution of musicality. Fourth, we expand biomusicological discussions beyond the species typically considered, providing an overview of chorusing and rhythmic behavior across a broad range of taxa (orthopterans, fireflies, frogs, birds, and primates). Finally, we propose an “Evolving Signal Timing” hypothesis, suggesting that similarities between timing abilities in biological species will be based on comparable chorusing behaviors. We conclude that the comparative study of chorusing species can provide important insights into the adaptive function(s) of rhythmic behavior in our “proto-musical” primate ancestors, and thus inform our understanding of the biology and evolution of rhythm in human music and language

Indian premier league- The value of a player

Článek se snaží zkoumat a pokoušet se odhadnout důležitost různých charakteristik na základě skutečných mezinárodních statistik hry kriketu, které se týkají definování a vysvětlení konkrétních peněžních hodnot pro kriketisty. Aukční proces používaný v Indian Premier League (IPL) umožňuje přidělit hráčům takové specifické peněžní hodnoty. Článek se snaží vyhodnotit výše uvedené údaje z dražby IPL do roku 2015 začleněním koncepcí odhadů panelů a pochopení předchozích prací v tomto poli. Navíc papír testuje hypotézu, která se točí kolem významu národnosti daného hráče. JEL Classification C13, C33, C38, C57, Z29 Keywords IPL, Odhad panelů, Smíšené efekty, Stanovení ceny aukcí Author's e-mail [email protected] Supervisor's e-mail [email protected].,czThe paper tries to examine and tries to estimate the importance of various characteristics based on the real international statistics of the game of cricket that go into defining and explaining specific monetary values for the cricketers. The auction process employed in the Indian premier league (IPL) enables one to associate players with such specific monetary values. The paper tries to evaluate the above using the data from the IPL auction till 2015 by incorporating the concepts of panel estimation and understanding the previous works in this field. In addition, the paper tests the hypothesis revolving around the significance of the nationality of the given player. JEL Classification C13, C33, C38, C57, Z29 Keywords IPL, Panel estimation, Mixed effects, Auction pricing Author's e-mail [email protected] Supervisor's e-mail [email protected].,czInstitut ekonomických studiíInstitute of Economic StudiesFaculty of Social SciencesFakulta sociálních vě

Proceedings Work-In-Progress Session of the 13th Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium

The Work-In-Progress session of the 13th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium (RTAS\u2707) presents papers describing contributions both to state of the art and state of the practice in the broad field of real-time and embedded systems. The 17 accepted papers were selected from 19 submissions. This proceedings is also available as Washington University in St. Louis Technical Report WUCSE-2007-17, at http://www.cse.seas.wustl.edu/Research/FileDownload.asp?733. Special thanks go to the General Chairs – Steve Goddard and Steve Liu and Program Chairs - Scott Brandt and Frank Mueller for their support and guidance

Injury surveillance in community cricket and the exploration of insurance claims systems

The aims of this industry funded PhD thesis were 1) To understand the injury causes, trends and burden in community cricket and 2) To examine the Cricket Australia National Club Risk Protection Program (NCRPP) insurance scheme for suitability as an injury surveillance tool for community cricket. This thesis sought to identify and understand the injury profile of community cricketers through existing literature and injury datasets, being, Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit (VISU) hospital data, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and NCRPP insurance claims data. This thesis also undertook a novel assessment of data validity and completeness from various sources, against industry standards of the Australian Sports Injury Data Dictionary (ASIDD) and cricket injury consensus statements (consensus). Existing literature using insurance claims data to report sports injury indicated high levels of validity and completeness were possible. Review across all sources of published, community- level, cricket-related injury data revealed acute medically-treated injuries were most commonly fractures, dislocations, sprains and strains. The most common body regions requiring hospital attendance were the wrist/hand and head. The majority of hospital-treated injuries were due to being struck by the ball. The majority of prospectively collected injury data involved junior and/or adolescent players and most often involved bowling cohorts, although fielding was the most commonly reported activity of injury onset. The majority of studies had an unclear likelihood of bias. Reporting completeness was moderate when compared to the ASIDD core items and consensus, with injury mechanism an area requiring improvement. The ACC provided data, on all cricket-related injury claims, showed high validity with the core items of the ASIDD and the cricket injury consensus statements. The ACC data showed soft tissue injuries were the most common injury nature with bowling the most common activity at injury onset. Lower back and shoulder sprains/strains were the most commonly injured body regions. Four-percent of claims involved lost work time. The NCRPP, collecting specifically organised cricket-related injury not covered by a universal healthcare system, showed fractures to the hands/fingers/thumb and knee sprains were the most common injuries. Fielding was the most common activity at injury onset. Twenty-five percent of claims received loss of income (LOI) payments with knee injuries representing the highest injury burden (weeks LOI/year). The NCRPP system showed a high level of validity in injury data collection measured against the ASIDD and consensus. The NCRPP data showed a high level of completeness compared to the core items of the ASIDD and a moderate level in comparison with the consensus. The NCRPP system was judged to be useful as a potential injury surveillance system against the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. Recommendations for improvements to the system include: 1) Addition of medical diagnosis/history; 2) Inclusion of injury side; 3) Inclusion of new/recurrent injury; 4) Allowance for multiple injuries being recorded separately; 5) Rationalisation of the injury nature terms (e.g. tear/rupture); 6) Reintroduction of injury mechanisms; 7) Addition of protective equipment usage; 8) Introduction of fielding positions; 9) Adopting required input fields in online forms to better capture injury data. Additional research is required to help validate the representativeness of the NCRPP injury data. Future research into community-level cricket injury would also be better served with a community-level injury surveillance consensus statement

Sistemas de posicionamento baseados em comunicação por luz para ambientes interiores

The demand for highly precise indoor positioning systems (IPSs) is growing rapidly due to its potential in the increasingly popular techniques of the Internet of Things, smart mobile devices, and artificial intelligence. IPS becomes a promising research domain that is getting wide attention due to its benefits in several working scenarios, such as, industries, indoor public locations, and autonomous navigation. Moreover, IPS has a prominent contribution in day-to-day activities in organizations such as health care centers, airports, shopping malls, manufacturing, underground locations, etc., for safe operating environments. In indoor environments, both radio frequency (RF) and optical wireless communication (OWC) based technologies could be adopted for localization. Although the RF-based global positioning system, such as, Global positioning system offers higher penetration rates with reduced accuracy (i.e., in the range of a few meters), it does not work well in indoor environments (and not at all in certain cases such as tunnels, mines, etc.) due to the very weak signal and no direct access to the satellites. On the other hand, the light-based system known as a visible light positioning (VLP) system, as part of the OWC systems, uses the pre-existing light-emitting diodes (LEDs)-based lighting infrastructure, could be used at low cost and high accuracy compared with the RF-based systems. VLP is an emerging technology promising high accuracy, high security, low deployment cost, shorter time response, and low relative complexity when compared with RFbased positioning. However, in indoor VLP systems, there are some concerns such as, multipath reflection, transmitter tilting, transmitter’s position, and orientation uncertainty, human shadowing/blocking, and noise causing the increase in the positioning error, thereby reducing the positioning accuracy of the system. Therefore, it is imperative to capture the characteristics of different VLP channel and properly model them for the dual purpose of illumination and localization. In this thesis, firstly, the impact of transmitter tilting angles and multipath reflections are studied and for the first time, it is demonstrated that tilting the transmitter can be beneficial in VLP systems considering both line of sight (LOS) and non-line of sight transmission paths. With the transmitters oriented towards the center of the receiving plane, the received power level is maximized due to the LOS components. It is also shown that the proposed scheme offers a significant accuracy improvement of up to ~66% compared with a typical non-tilted transmitter VLP. The effect of tilting the transmitter on the lighting uniformity is also investigated and results proved that the uniformity achieved complies with the European Standard EN 12464-1. After that, the impact of transmitter position and orientation uncertainty on the accuracy of the VLP system based on the received signal strength (RSS) is investigated. Simulation results show that the transmitter uncertainties have a severe impact on the positioning error, which can be leveraged through the usage of more transmitters. Concerning a smaller transmitter’s position epochs, and the size of the training set. It is shown that, the ANN with Bayesian regularization outperforms the traditional RSS technique using the non-linear least square estimation for all values of signal to noise ratio. Furthermore, a novel indoor VLP system is proposed based on support vector machines and polynomial regression considering two different multipath environments of an empty room and a furnished room. The results show that, in an empty room, the positioning accuracy improvement for the positioning error of 2.5 cm are 36.1, 58.3, and 72.2 % for three different scenarios according to the regions’ distribution in the room. For the furnished room, a positioning relative accuracy improvement of 214, 170, and 100 % is observed for positioning error of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 m, respectively. Ultimately, an indoor VLP system based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally in which LEDs are used as transmitters and a rolling shutter camera is used as receiver. A detection algorithm named single shot detector (SSD) is used which relies on CNN (i.e., MobileNet or ResNet) for classification as well as position estimation of each LED in the image. The system is validated using a real-world size test setup containing eight LED luminaries. The obtained results show that the maximum average root mean square positioning error achieved is 4.67 and 5.27 cm with SSD MobileNet and SSD ResNet models, respectively. The validation results show that the system can process 67 images per second, allowing real-time positioning.A procura por sistemas de posicionamento interior (IPSs) de alta precisão tem crescido rapidamente devido ao seu interesse nas técnicas cada vez mais populares da Internet das Coisas, dispositivos móveis inteligentes e inteligência artificial. O IPS tornou-se um domínio de pesquisa promissor que tem atraído grande atenção devido aos seus benefícios em vários cenários de trabalho, como indústrias, locais públicos e navegação autónoma. Além disso, o IPS tem uma contribuição destacada no dia a dia de organizações, como, centros de saúde, aeroportos, supermercados, fábricas, locais subterrâneos, etc. As tecnologias baseadas em radiofrequência (RF) e comunicação óptica sem fio (OWC) podem ser adotadas para localização em ambientes interiores. Embora o sistema de posicionamento global (GPS) baseado em RF ofereça taxas de penetração mais altas com precisão reduzida (ou seja, na faixa de alguns metros), não funciona bem em ambientes interiores (e não funciona bem em certos casos como túneis, minas, etc.) devido ao sinal muito fraco e falta de acesso direto aos satélites. Por outro lado, o sistema baseado em luz conhecido como sistema de posicionamento de luz visível (VLP), como parte dos sistemas OWC, usa a infraestrutura de iluminação baseada em díodos emissores de luz (LEDs) pré-existentes, é um sistemas de baixo custo e alta precisão quando comprado com os sistemas baseados em RF. O VLP é uma tecnologia emergente que promete alta precisão, alta segurança, baixo custo de implantação, menor tempo de resposta e baixa complexidade relativa quando comparado ao posicionamento baseado em RF. No entanto, os sistemas VLP interiores, exibem algumas limitações, como, a reflexão multicaminho, inclinação do transmissor, posição do transmissor e incerteza de orientação, sombra/bloqueio humano e ruído, que têm como consequência o aumento do erro de posicionamento, e consequente redução da precisão do sistema. Portanto, é imperativo estudar as características dos diferentes canais VLP e modelá-los adequadamente para o duplo propósito de iluminação e localização. Esta tesa aborda, primeiramente, o impacto dos ângulos de inclinação do transmissor e reflexões multipercurso no desempenho do sistema de posicionamento. Demonstra-se que a inclinação do transmissor pode ser benéfica em sistemas VLP considerando tanto a linha de vista (LOS) como as reflexões. Com os transmissores orientados para o centro do plano recetor, o nível de potência recebido é maximizado devido aos componentes LOS. Também é mostrado que o esquema proposto oferece uma melhoria significativa de precisão de até ~66% em comparação com um sistema VLP de transmissor não inclinado típico. O efeito da inclinação do transmissor na uniformidade da iluminação também é investigado e os resultados comprovam que a uniformidade alcançada está de acordo com a Norma Europeia EN 12464-1. O impacto da posição do transmissor e incerteza de orientação na precisão do sistema VLP com base na intensidade do sinal recebido (RSS) foi também investigado. Os resultados da simulação mostram que as incertezas do transmissor têm um impacto severo no erro de posicionamento, que pode ser atenuado com o uso de mais transmissores. Para incertezas de posicionamento dos transmissores menores que 5 cm, os erros médios de posicionamento são 23.3, 15.1 e 13.2 cm para conjuntos de 4, 9 e 16 transmissores, respetivamente. Enquanto que, para a incerteza de orientação de um transmissor menor de 5°, os erros médios de posicionamento são 31.9, 20.6 e 17 cm para conjuntos de 4, 9 e 16 transmissores, respetivamente. O trabalho da tese abordou a investigação dos aspetos de projeto de um sistema VLP indoor no qual uma rede neuronal artificial (ANN) é utilizada para estimativa de posicionamento considerando um canal multipercurso. O estudo considerou a influência do ruído como indicador de desempenho para a comparação entre diferentes abordagens de projeto. Três algoritmos de treino de ANNs diferentes foram considerados, a saber, Levenberg-Marquardt, regularização Bayesiana e algoritmos de gradiente conjugado escalonado, para minimizar o erro de posicionamento no sistema VLP. O projeto da ANN foi otimizado com base no número de neurónios nas camadas ocultas, no número de épocas de treino e no tamanho do conjunto de treino. Mostrou-se que, a ANN com regularização Bayesiana superou a técnica RSS tradicional usando a estimação não linear dos mínimos quadrados para todos os valores da relação sinal-ruído. Foi proposto um novo sistema VLP indoor baseado em máquinas de vetores de suporte (SVM) e regressão polinomial considerando dois ambientes interiores diferentes: uma sala vazia e uma sala mobiliada. Os resultados mostraram que, numa sala vazia, a melhoria da precisão de posicionamento para o erro de posicionamento de 2.5 cm são 36.1, 58.3 e 72.2% para três cenários diferentes de acordo com a distribuição das regiões na sala. Para a sala mobiliada, uma melhoria de precisão relativa de posicionamento de 214, 170 e 100% é observada para erro de posicionamento de 0.1, 0.2 e 0.3 m, respetivamente. Finalmente, foi proposto um sistema VLP indoor baseado em redes neurais convolucionais (CNN). O sistema foi demonstrado experimentalmente usando luminárias LED como transmissores e uma camara com obturador rotativo como recetor. O algoritmo de detecção usou um detector de disparo único (SSD) baseado numa CNN pré configurada (ou seja, MobileNet ou ResNet) para classificação. O sistema foi validado usando uma configuração de teste de tamanho real contendo oito luminárias LED. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que o erro de posicionamento quadrático médio alcançado é de 4.67 e 5.27 cm com os modelos SSD MobileNet e SSD ResNet, respetivamente. Os resultados da validação mostram que o sistema pode processar 67 imagens por segundo, permitindo o posicionamento em tempo real.Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Eletrotécnic