Intel and EXOS team up to explore 3D athlete tracking technology

EXOS has long been committed to improving human athletic performance. As a leader in this field, EXOS is trying to use Intel 3D Athlete Tracking (3DAT) technology to train professional athletes who are eager to succeed and help them reach their peak. As professional athletes, they hope to use 3DAT and artificial intelligence technology to gain a deeper understanding of their sprint speed, acceleration, and biomechanics, and obtain effective suggestions to significantly improve their competitive level.

“Intel 3DAT technology is bringing metrics that were previously unmeasurable to the naked eye. We can take this information, combine it, and turn it into tangible images and data for coaches and athletes to use. Based on these insights, even the smallest adjustments can bring real and effective changes to athletes, which will completely change the future of competitive sports.”

—Monica Laudermilk, Vice President of Research, EXOS

3DAT puts data at the fingertips of coaches and top athletes that previously either did not exist or was difficult to obtain. Now, with a simple video, people can get precise bone analysis and sports performance indicators. Everyone, including athletes and coaches, can clearly understand how the athlete's body is moving and how to achieve better competitive performance.

“In sports, there’s a huge gap between how people feel they are doing and how they are actually performing,” said Ashton Eaton, two-time Olympic decathlon gold medalist and product development engineer at Intel’s Olympic Technology Group. “When I’m sprinting 100 meters, I’ll work with my coach to shave a few fractions of a second off my time, but it’s all based on feel, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t because I don’t fully understand what my body is doing. 3DAT gives athletes a precise understanding of how their bodies are moving during exercise, so they can make adjustments more accurately to become faster and perform better.”

How it works: 3DAT uses cameras to record athletes’ training processes, without requiring athletes to do anything manually. This way, they don’t have to wear sensors or deviate from their regular training plans. After the filming is completed, the system sends the video data (60 frames per second) to the cloud, where it is analyzed by Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors with built-in Intel® Deep Learning AI acceleration. Coaches then receive reports and charts with detailed overviews of the athletes’ training. Based on this, coaches can conduct deeper research on body mechanics or other problematic areas to better understand what subtle adjustments can be made to help athletes reach their full athletic potential.

“3DAT provides us with information and insights into not only the technical details of how people run and how to improve performance, but also the factors that may be holding athletes back,” said Craig Friedman, senior vice president of EXOS’ sports performance innovation team. “Using this data, we can make more targeted adjustments in the gym to help athletes unlock their potential on the field.”

Next Steps: Through its ongoing collaboration with EXOS, Intel will have access to professional coaches, top athletes and high-level testers to gain a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of how this technology can be used in the future. Intel engineers are constantly innovating, enabling developers to turn their imagination into reality based on 3DAT technology to advance the field of human sports performance.