Audio-based performance evaluation of squash players
This provides a domain-specific solution for squash players and coaches to objectively assess and improve performance, though it is incremental as it applies existing audio analysis methods to a new sports context.
The paper tackled the problem of quantifying performance in squash by developing a framework that uses characteristic sound patterns to classify shot types and localize events, enabling estimation of ball speed and shot precision, which enriches available data for objective performance evaluation.
In competitive sports it is often very hard to quantify the performance. A player to score or overtake may depend on only millesimal of seconds or millimeters. In racquet sports like tennis, table tennis and squash many events will occur in a short time duration, whose recording and analysis can help reveal the differences in performance. In this paper we show that it is possible to architect a framework that utilizes the characteristic sound patterns to precisely classify the types of and localize the positions of these events. From these basic information the shot types and the ball speed along the trajectories can be estimated. Comparing these estimates with the optimal speed and target the precision of the shot can be defined. The detailed shot statistics and precision information significantly enriches and improves data available today. Feeding them back to the players and the coaches facilitates to describe playing performance objectively and to improve strategy skills. The framework is implemented, its hardware and software components are installed and tested in a squash court.