Tracking pitches for broadcast television

During a baseball game, dramatic changes in lighting conditions and the movement of objects and players can result in a shifting pattern of light and color that makes it especially difficult to track a pitched ball. Further, several ballparks have a net in place behind home plate, which contributes further to the visual clutter that the image processing system must filter out when tracking the baseball. Meeting these challenges required developing a complex system that fuses high-end computer graphics with a sophisticated algorithm for calculating flight trajectories. The paper considers the ESPN K Zone system which uses computer-generated graphics to create a shaded, translucent box that outlines the strike zone boundaries for viewers. Behind the flashy graphics, K Zone-named after a synonym for the strike zone is a sophisticated computing system that monitors each pitch´s trajectory