COACHING OF BATSMEN

FIELD OF INVENTION:

[001] The present invention relates to the field of sports training equipment and more 5 specifically to the games where a batsman attempts to a ball delivered such as cricket, wherein the proposed device shall be utilized in coaching the batsmen through various ball delivering techniques and methods through the integration of artificial intelligence, computer vision and image processing systems in a ball delivering machine for batting practice.

10 BACKGROUND OF INVENTION:

[002] Background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.

[003] 15 For detailed explanation of the present invention, a typical ball delivering and batting game considered here is Cricket. Cricket is a game between two teams of 11 players on both; however, at any point of time the bowling team’s 11 players will fully be occupied in fielding, 2 players from the batting team will be occupied in batting; while 9 other players of the batting team will be idle. On the outset, the 20 runs earned by any team depends on the skills of the batsmen of a team and the bowler at the other side; the aim of the bowler shall remain that the batsman should be evaded off or at the least possibility, be held that no runs can be obtained; and the aim of the batsman shall remain that any ball bowled should be attended to without getting hit to the stumps while also earning the maximum runs out of a single ball.

[004] The objectives of the batsmen and the bowlers in the field of the match is achieved only through a thorough practice on both the sides. Bowling, however is an art of

5 delivering a ball at a respective speed while achieving the other aspects such as spin, pitch, twist, etc., wherein the speed and other factors depend upon the arm length of the bowler, ball holding pattern, the whole body posture along with the release style; while batting is an art of making calculated judgements of a ball before it reaches the bat as to the type of offence to be made so that maximum runs

10 can be obtained without getting hit at the stumps or any other weak ways of attempting to it whereby it would eliminate the batsman from the pitch. In order to achieve this objective, batsmen in training sessions and clubs are given training through a variety of ball delivering machines which shall throw a ball at a specified speed, pitch length and pattern so that batsmen get trained on attempting to a same

15 style of ball upon attending to it in a defined pattern for a number of times.

[005] However, such training methods using ball delivering machines which bowl a same type of ball repeatedly, tends to create a fatigue among the batsmen while also leaving them unable to judge the real-time bowling aspects of a bowler in the field and there arises a need for a ball delivering practice machine which is capable of

20 automatically deciding and delivering a variety of balls in different patterns to a batsmen at any point of time so that the fatigue created due to attending to a same type of ball in repeated actions shall be eliminated and also a better practice session can be provided during the training period. [006] Efforts had been made in the related art to address the difficulty in such a way where there have been different machines invented for the purpose. A number of different types of machines and systems used in the field of bowling machines are available in prior arts. Prior art document WO2012027776A1 discloses a camera system for

5 installation in a cricket wicket comprising stumps, the system including: at least two video cameras; at least two stumps each having a hollow configured to receive one of the at least two cameras and a stump opening on a pitch facing surface of the stump; an optical device positioned in each of the at least two stumps for directing light entering the stump opening towards the camera; a transmitter for transmitting

10 data captured by the cameras to a remote receiver; and a processor for processing the data captured by the cameras to provide a three dimensional broadcast. Also provided is a method for providing a three dimensional broadcast of any action occurring on an elongate cricket pitch.

[007] Yet another prior art WO2014147444A1 discloses a ball launching machine

15 includes a ball stacker for stocking the balls to be pitched, a ball transfer tube for the balls to be transferred from the ball stacker to the ball supporting structure, a pitching arm for providing the arm-motion of a bowler, a motor drive for rotating the pitching arm, a vibration absorber for absorbing the vibrations of the machine thus providing stability, a vertical axis adjustment dial for adjusting the length of

20 the pitched ball, an operation for operating the machine, a horizontal-axis adjustment dial for controlling the traverse direction of the ball and controlling the motion direction of the pitching arm, a height adjustment mechanism wherein height of the machine can be adjusted to imitate the height of a bowler and plurality of wheels particularly tyres to move the machine easily.

[008] Yet another prior art US8292709 discloses an apparatus for a sports game involving movement of a projectile, the apparatus comprising impact sensors for detecting

5 impacts by a player of the sport game or the projectile, the impact sensors being coupled to a processor operable to derive characteristic data for a projectile movement from impacts detected by two or more of the player impact sensors. By monitoring impacts, rather than the movement of the projectile through the air, the apparatus may be both inexpensive and easy to install.

[009] 10 Yet another prior art GB2481140A discloses a ball projecting machine comprising a pair of counter rotating wheels and a rotary guide member, the driving wheels having spaced ball engaging surfaces which cooperate with the guide member to grip and project a ball wherein the axes of rotation of the drive wheels can be changed to impart spin on a ball and the guide member can be rotated by the spin.

15 The guide member may be a ball mounted on a ball bearing track so that it can freely rotate about a range of axes depending on the spin on the ball. Alternatively rollers mounted on a central axis may be employed. The device may be used to mimic a cricket bowler and by varying the speed and angle of the drive wheels can produce Yorkers, bouncers, swinging deliveries, breaks and cutters. The frame of

20 the device may also be pivotally mounted.

[0010] Yet another prior art GB2293979A discloses a machine for ejecting a ball in a given direction comprising (a) at least three driveable rotatable members (e.g. rollers) arranged to engage the ball to eject it from the machine, at least two of the members having non-parallel axes of rotation, and (b) means for driving the rotatable members at differential speeds and/or at differential ball engagement pressures to impart spin to the ball, whereby the spin axis of the ball when ejected can be selected by control of the differential speeds and/or engagement pressures to lie in

5 any direction in a plane transverse to the direction of ejection. The rotatable members may have resilient rims arranged for frictional engagement with the ball, and may be provided by two pairs of opposed counter-rotatable rollers, each pair of rollers having a common plane of rotation.

[0011] Yet another prior art IN227058 discloses an accurate and consistent batting practice

10 for players by throwing a cricket ball in an accurate manner at a predetermined speed, spin and direction. The bowling machine was mentioned to find usage amongst both amateur and professional cricketers who can use it as part of their regular practice for fine tuning of batting without the necessity of bowlers capable of providing spin, fast bowling and the like. The said machine is capable of

15 generating a supply of cricket balls intermittently with required direction, flight, spin and other useful manipulations as done in the play of cricket.

[0012] Though the prior arts have solved the problem to a certain extent, however, there is still a need for advancement through technology aspects, having that, the level of extra-ordinary human intervention towards operating the machines for setting of

20 ball speed, pitch length etc., and the same need to be attended to frequently by a skilled person on the training grounds and there was provided no technologies to make decisions on deciding the style, speed and pattern of bowling automatically by the machine on its own, so as to provide for the batsmen to attend to different types of balls from a same machine without human intervention.

[0013] There is therefore also a need to provide an efficient, reliable, highly automated and artificially intelligent system that is capable of solving the above mentioned 5 problems of human intervention and fatigue during the practices while also providing a platform for the best practice to be displayed during the real games.

[0014] Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art through comparison of described systems with some aspects of the present disclosure, as set forth in the remainder 10 of the present application and with reference to the drawings.

[0015] In some embodiments, the numbers expressing quantities or dimensions of items, and so forth, used to describe and claim certain embodiments of the invention are to be understood as being modified in some instances by the term “about.” Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters set forth in the 15 written description and attached claims are approximations that can vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by a particular embodiment. In some embodiments, the numerical parameters should be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad 20 scope of some embodiments of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as practicable. [0016] The numerical values presented in some embodiments of the invention may contain certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements.

[0017] As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning

5 of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

[0018] The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range.

10 Unless otherwise indicated herein, each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. “such as”) provided with respect to certain embodiments

15 herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice of the invention.

[0019] Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed herein

20 are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written description of all groups used in the appended claims.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION:

[0020] 5 A general object of the present invention is to provide for a system that is capable of intelligently and automatically decide the nature of ball to be delivered to a batsman which will be tough to be attempted by;

[0021 ] Another object of the present invention is to provide for a system and ball delivering machine device capable of placing itself in a position as decided in order to deliver 10 a ball to the batsman; which is defined to be offside or leg side in the aspect of the game cricket;

[0022] Yet another object of the present invention is to provide for a system and ball delivering machine capable of being artificially trained to deliver balls as exactly as delivered by a predefined original human style;

[0023 J5 Yet another object of the present invention is to devise a system and ball delivering machine capable of capturing image data, interpreting and taking decisions on ball delivery patterns, based on the physique of the batsman;

[0024] Yet another object of the present invention is to enable a ball delivering machine capable of automatically defining the pitch point through latitudinal and 20 longitudinal pitch coordinates for a ball in order to reach the batsman in defined styles SUMMARY:

[0025] The present disclosure relates to the field of sports training equipment and more specifically to the game of cricket wherein the proposed device shall be utilized in coaching the batsmen through various bowling techniques and methods through the 5 integration of artificial intelligence and image processing systems in a bowling practice machine.

[0026] In an aspect, the present invention discloses a system for capturing the physique of a batsman through a plurality of cameras in order to capture the batting posture of the batsman from various angles.

[0027J0 In another aspect, the present invention discloses a system incorporated with an image processing algorithm capable of making automatic comparisons with various available batting postures stored within a microcontroller.

[0028] In yet another aspect, the present invention discloses a system integrated with an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of making decisions on the pitch point (in 15 case of games in which the ball meets the bat after a pitch), ball deliverance style, type of bowling, speed etc., for the ball to be bowled to a batsman.

[0029] In yet another aspect, the present invention discloses a system integrated with a machine learning algorithm capable of being trained to bowl any style of balls in correlation with the data received from the image processing system as to the 20 bowling pattern in accordance with the physique analysis of the batsman.

[0030] In yet another aspect, the present invention discloses a system capable of automatically controlling the angle of tilt of the machine in horizontal and vertical directions so as to enable the machine deliver the ball at right position. [0031] In yet another aspect, the present invention discloses a system capable of automatically controlling the wheel rotation pattern of the plurality of motors for ball handling within the device in order to deliver the ball in a defined style.

[0032] In yet another aspect, the present invention discloses a system capable of 5 automatically making decisions on machine placement and driving the ball delivering machine to a right position in order to deliver the right ball from the right position, right direction, right style and right pace.

[0033] In another aspect, the present invention discloses a system for automatically deciding and bowling ball in a style to a batsman so as the batsman can be bowled 10 out.

[0034] Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the inventive subject matter will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, along with the accompanying drawing figures in which the numerals represent the like components.

15 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS :

[0035] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present 20 disclosure.

[0036] FIG. 1 illustrates an apropos schematic representation of a batsman training environment; typically and more specifically, the environment for training of a cricket batsman. [0037] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary schematic representation of the input output parameters in the Artificially Intelligent machine control unit microcontroller.

[0038] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram of the system’s algorithm to make decisions on automatically deciding the ball delivery pattern for a batsman.

5 DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

[0039] The following is the detailed description of the embodiments of the disclosure depicted in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are in such details as to clearly communicate the disclosure. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of the embodiments; on the contrary, the 10 intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

[0040] If the specification states a component or feature “may”, “can”, “could”, or “might” be included or have a characteristic, that particular component of feature is not required to be included or have the characteristic.

[0041 J5 Exemplary embodiments will not be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments are shown. This disclosure may however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. These embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey

20 the scope of the disclosure to those of ordinary skill in art. Moreover, all statements herein reciting embodiments of the disclosure, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass bot the structural and functional equivalents thereof.

Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both the currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future (i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure.)

[0042] Various terms as used herein are shown below. To the extent a term in a claim is not defined below, it should be given the broadest definition persons in the pertinent 5 art have given that term as reflected in printed publications and issued patent at the time of filing.

[0043] Embodiments explained herein relate to an artificially intelligent, self-teaching ball delivering machine that is capable of automatically positioning itself and deciding the pattern of ball to be bowled to a batsman on the basis of inputs from an image 10 processing processer in correlation with a pitch point through as required.

[0044] In an aspect, the disclosed system ensures that the machine makes the practice for a batsman tougher and tougher by identifying the weakness of the person and delivering the same pattern of balls in order to make the training earn a complete reliable efficiency.

[0045J.5 In another aspect, the disclosed system and method shall be suitable for any game wherein the batsman is bowled a ball in a challenging manner whereby the rules and procedures shall vary accordingly while the system and technical methodology shall remain the same. For the purposes of clarity and conciseness in the explanation of the system, the present invention shall be explained with cricket game as 20 reference.

[0046] FIG. 1 illustrates an apropos schematic representation of a batsman training environment 100 depicting the game of cricket, wherein the batsman 103 aimed at facing a ball from a delivery source in the game of cricket inside a training net 102. The training net 102 is equipped with a plurality of cameras 101, 101 A, 101B and 101C in each corner pole aimed to capture the images and stance of the batsman 103. The said cameras 101 are connected to the ball delivery machine positioned in front of the stump opposite to the batsman within the bowler’s crease.

[0047] 5 The said cameras 101 are internet protocol cameras and the connection between the cameras and the ball delivering machine is wireless, wherein the image capture data shall be transmitted to the ball delivering machine through the IP network.

[0048] The said ball delivering machine shall be capable of performing basic mechanical bowling functions as described in patent numbers GB2293979A and GB2481140A 10 while the machine shall be performing its other mechanical functions similar to that as described in WO2014147444A1 and other ball launching machines available in the market wherein the devices are equipped with wheels at the bottom in order to move the machine from place to place and also, with preprogrammed motor arrangements in the bowling unit for providing rotation of the bowling head in y 15 and z axes along with ball handling motors as described in patent numbers GB2293979A and GB2481140A.

[0049] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary schematic representation 200 of the input output parameters in the artificially intelligent machine control unit microcontroller. The wheels at the bottom in order to move the ball delivering unit, mentioned in the 20 present invention are equipped with stepper motors 211 connected to the central machine control unit 201 through the machine positioning stepper motor control module 208. The said ball launching machine once placed behind of the bowling crease, shall automatically position itself in a position off side or leg side to the stumps through appropriate actuation of the machine positioning stepper motors 211. The machine positioning stepper motors decide on the off side or leg side positioning based on the batsman’ s stance who shall either be a left-handed or right- handed batsman and as such through relative inputs as applicable for different 5 games.

[0050] The automatic positioning of the ball delivering machine is performed through a virtual or real-time grid 104 (preferably mesh centered) spread across half-length and complete width of the pitch from batsman’s crease and positioning system based on a 2D grid point algorithm. With the central grid point as reference, the ball 10 delivering machine maintains the distance behind the bowler crease and the position off or leg side to the batsman in correlation with the camera 101 data.

[0051] Existing prior arts and ball delivering machines in cricket are capable of bowling different patterns of balls such as leg spin, off spin and fast balls with the arrangement of the bowling head motors 210 accordingly as required for a batsman 15 through a preset or defined input module.

[0052] The present invention however, automatically aligns the bowling head motors 210 in y and z axes for the trial balls through the bowling direction stepper control module 207 integrated with the central machine control module 201 and the ball handling stepper motor 209 handles the ball in such a way so as to deliver the ball 20 at a particular speed in a particular rotary action as required, which is integrated to the central machine control unit 201 through the ball handling stepper motor rotation and speed control module 206; the cameras 101 shall capture the batsman’s

103 activity of attempting to each pattern of ball and process the same through the data acquisition and image processing module 203 in order to estimate the difficulty of a batsman 103 for each type of a trial ball bowled in defined number of throws and on different patterns.

[0053] Based on the findings from level difficulty faced by the batsman from the computer 5 vision analysis and image processing data of a batsman 103, the bowling pattern decision module 204 integrated with the central machine control unit shall define the pattern of balls that has to be bowled to a batsman 103 in order to achieve better performances. The pitch point decision module 205 integrated with the central machine control unit 203 is responsible to automatically define the pitch points for 10 each ball being delivered to a batsman 103 in order to achieve dynamic balls being bowled and to avoid bowling a same pattern or different pattern of balls at a same pitch point creating fatigue to a batsman 103. The pitch point decision module 205 works with the grid point 104 algorithm towards defining the exact point at which each ball has to be delivered and pitched before reaching the batsman 103.

[0054J5 The batsman physique capture module 202 considers the height and arm length of a batsman 103 before defining the pitch points as well as the pattern of balls to be delivered in order to deliver the right kind of and tough balls for the batsman to attempt at. All data collection and retrieval of batsman and ball delivery information are performed through access with a cloud server database 212 connected with the 20 ball delivering machine through internet.

[0055] FIG.3 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram 300 of the system’s algorithm to make decisions on automatically deciding the ball delivery pattern for a batsman and bowling the same at any given point of time. The cameras 306 of the system collects inputs on the batsman direction 301, the aerial distance of the batsman from stump in horizontal and vertical directions (X and Z axes) 302, physique of the batsman in terms of height and arm length parameters 303 and kinesiology data of the attempted trial balls 306. The collected data from cameras 306 are processed

5 through computer vision and image processer 307 integrated with the central machine control unit 201 and capable of comparing, analyzing and detecting variations in the kinesiology data 304 of the batsman in comparison to the kinesiology data of professional batsmen and bowlers.

[0056] The image processer 307 is an input with machine learning data 305 which includes

10 kinesiology data of professional batsmen and bowlers; and their ball delivery and attempting style to the pattern of balls so delivered by names. The results of comparison on the image processing data from the image processor 307 shall enable the microprocessor and the central machine control 201 in predicting the pain points of the batsman 308 so as to make artificially intelligent decisions and define the

15 suitable on the bowling patterns 311 to be bowled to a batsman in order to make the practice tougher and tougher. The machine control processer 309, based on the decisions of the system actuates the bottom wheel stepper motors 211 through the machine positioning stepper motor control module 208 in order to make changes or reposition the ball delivering machine from off side to leg side or the vice versa

20 thereby enabling the machine to bowl different pattern of balls by the defining the bowling pattern 311 to the batsman. [0057] Once the system makes decisions on the bowling pattern 311, the bowling direction stepper motor control module 207 shall automatically align itself to a predefined, coordinated position so as to enable the delivering machine deliver the perfect type of ball. The Y axis stepper motor adjusts the bowling head in vertical direction and 5 the X axis stepper motor adjusts the angle of tilt of the bowling head with reference to the defined pitch point 317 and the ball handling stepper motor rotation and speed control module 206 automatically actuates the ball handling stepper motors 209 based on the defined ball speed 312, the defined bowling pattern 315 and the defined pitch point 317 A so as to intelligently and automatically actuate and engage 10 the right combination of wheels 316 in order to deliver the ball 313 to the batsman 103 pitching at the exact defined grid point of the pitch grid 104, wherein the entire system in an intelligent coordination bowls the right ball, at the right pace.

[0058] As soon as the batsman 103 attempts the ball so delivered by the machine, the cameras 306 captures the kinesiology data 314 of the batsman over the attempted 15 ball and sends it to the image processor 307 in order to analyze the pain points and difficulty level of the batsman 103 in facing each pattern of ball at different speeds thereby making the overall net training real-time and engaged, whereby the fatigue of facing same pattern of balls and assigning another person to make changes to the bowling pattern, ball speed and other parameters are not needed anymore.

[0059J0 It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “ comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combines with other elements, components, or steps

5 that are not expressly referenced. Where the specification claims refers to at least one of something selected from the group consisting A, B, C, > and N, the text should be interpreted as requiring only one element from the group, not A plus N, or B plus N, etc.,. The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by

10 applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed

15 herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practices with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

[0060] While the foregoing described various embodiments of the invention, other and 20 further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. The scope of the invention is determined by the claims that follow. The invention is not limited to the described embodiments, versions or examples, which are included to enable a person having ordinary skill in art to make and use the invention when combined with information and knowledge available to the person having ordinary skill in the art.