Construction of distance measurement system between boccia balls using RGB-D camera

Abstract

While there is a growing emphasis on improving QOL of patients with neurological diseases such as ALS and SMA, the sport of boccia, which can be played by people with relatively severe disabilities, is attracting attention. In this study, we developed a system that measures the distance between balls from the jack-ball and displays the results of victory or defeat from each distance value, with the aim of assisting patients with neurological intractable diseases to compete. In this system, each ball was detected by a labeling process and a circular approximation of the Hough transform, and the distance between balls was calculated from the distance values to the balls by the RGB-D camera. In the verification experiment, the system's recognition accuracy and distance were investigated. The results showed that the average ball recognition rate was 98.4% and the measurement distance error was 4.4%, confirming the effectiveness of the system.