A research team led by Prof Su Weifeng, Head of UIC's Department of Computer Science and Deputy Director of Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Research and Application for Data Science, has cracked a technical challenge in sorting track cycling scores through collaboration with the General Administration of Sport of China.
Prof Su Weifeng
Before the innovation of the scoring system, the time was recorded by ground timing bands when wheel pressure was applied. However, this method could not accurately distinguish between front and rear wheel pressures, resulting in timing errors.
To overcome this issue, the team combined motion estimation algorithms with computer vision to create a novel solution for accurate timing in track cycling competitions.
Zhang Ting, a guest researcher of the China Institute of Sport Science, said that the new system has created a multi-dimensional and multimodal measure method for the national team, "which can eliminate miscalculations in the millisecond competition".
Guest researcher of the China Institute of Sport Science Zhang Ting shares the project on a speech hosted by the China Science Communication
The system has been officially accepted by the General Administration of Sport of China and put into use for the daily training of the national team.
The success of this project is attributed to close teamwork. To collect enough data and ensure the stability and accuracy of the system in the real competition environment, Prof Su's team came to the training ground of Beijing Olympic athletes and Dongguan several times for field tests.
Team members in Dongguan doing field testing
Team members: Li Mingzhe (left) and Xu Gongyou (right)
Team members: Mai Zhongyu, Zhan Zewei and Guo Hanyu (from left)
Moving forward, the team will continue contributing their expertise to national sports projects aimed at further propelling China's track cycling sport development. The Key Laboratory will also continue to promote in-depth interdisciplinary research and the cross-fertilisation of disciplines.
From FST and MPRO
Reporter: Cecilia Yu
Editor: Deen He
