The Design of a Web-Based Multimedia Sport Instructional System

With the advances in computer technology, many systems have been developed for educational and instructional purposes. In particular, a computer-based system is very attractive in sports instruction and training as compared to the traditional human coaching approach, saving time, space, and cost. Among several important technical issues to be resolved in such sports instructional systems, motion or gesture capture and the organization of the database are the major ones. Of course, the most successful implementations are the systems from the gaming industry. In this work, we briefly discuss these commercial technologies and systems. A prototype system for learning tennis is introduced. Various techniques for motion capture are described and discussed. An event-based motion detecting and matching algorithm for capturing tennis swings from people of different size is presented. Finally, a framework for a Web-based generic sport system is presented.