Development of a Strike Zone Visualization System for Baseball Umpires

Abstract

In baseball, the strike-ball decision (SB decision) is an important factor that determines the winner of a game. Recently, automatic equipment for SB decisions has been developed, but it is expensive and difficult to introduce such equipment to amateur games. Non-official umpires often judge SB decisions in amateur games, however, it requires experience to understand the strike zone, which is the standard for SB decisions, and it is difficult for non-official umpires to make accurate SB decisions. Therefore, this system visualizes the strike zone using consumer camera images as input for the purpose of assisting accurate SB judgments when non-official umpires officiate at amateur games. The system visualizes the strike zone based on the input image taken from the umpire's position, the detected home base position, and the batter's joint positions.