Genius Sports-owned Second Spectrum revealed the first visuals of its new Dragon tracking system as part of a presentation to analysts. While most of the showcase involved products on the market, the management team gave its first glimpse of the new technology first publicized as part of a recently announced partnership with the NBA, reports SBJ’s Joe Lemire.
Dragon is the engine behind the next-generation solution, with so-called “mesh tracking” as its visible output. Current pose and limb tracking captures two- or three-dozen points on each athlete’s body, but the example shown in the presentation collected about 7,000 data points -- essentially, the entire surface area of the human body, empowering more fluidity of movement and increased realism.
The NBA has signed on to help research and develop Dragon and its mesh tracking. No one is ready to project a timetable for implementation, but when it’s ready, Second Spectrum CCO Mike D’Auria said he believes it will be “a paradigm shift in tracking,” expanding from millions to billions of data points per game.
