Tracking Professional Athletes

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Tracking Professional Athletes

  • This is another technology enabled possibility that may explode or, then again, never achieve fruition. I am terrible at predictions, however, I believe that the early indicators are that commercial ventures are investigating what benefits that they can derive from applying this technology. I think that this is more likely to succeed than drop into obscurity.

    Whilst I believe that this will be a significant amount of future work for data professionals, I do wonder whether there will be a significant quantity of bespoke development work or whether it will remain limited to (the huge amount of) data capture and analysis.

    Gaz

    -- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!

  • Technology that tracks movements isn't new.

    I have seen "Movement Analytic" solutions several years ago which leverage WiFi infrastructure. They can operate at a shopping centre, sports stadium, university campus etc level that simultaneously track (and store) the location of all unique devices. Depending on architecture/deployment the scale of the SQL spatial "movement" and positioning data generated can be in the trillions of rows (100TB+).

    Individually the data isn't that useful (unless tracking individuals for security reasons, say at an airport) but in aggregate it becomes quite powerful; where are the busiest areas of the store at any time (which can be used to fine tune rents), where are certain stores best positioned given movements, is a store layout the most optimal it can be.

    It can also be used to build the best optimal future stores based on known historical movements.

    And yes for sure it can be used for predictions too; given a demographic breakdown of a device user what are they "most likely" to do next? And what advertising ops are best positioned to them, when and how.

    Example - http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/skyfiis-wifi-watching-you-shop-in-westfield-20150316-1m0e3j.html

    Its just a matter of time before these LBS solutions are the norm in every major private or public complex. When that happens the data waterfall then follows - either on-prem or cloud.

    Mr. Fox SQL

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/mr-fox-sql/

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    Rolf Tesmer (Mr. Fox SQL)
    https://mrfoxsql.wordpress.com/
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  • ... The NFL is also starting to use sensors to track their players, but with different goals. They are monitoring workloads, trying to ensure the health and peak performance of players ...

    Something like RedGate NFL Monitor? Can you kill opposing team members who are blocking? 🙂

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

  • Insurance companies are already doing this although I don't know if they actually track geo-location but it seems logical they would because they can. They have this little gizmo that you put in the diagnostic port of your vehicle and leave it. It somehow transmits information to the insurance company about acceleration, braking, what gear the vehicle is in, and more. It could (in theory and don't know if it actually does) track you by geo-location and, in theory, compare how fast you're going to what the speed limit is.

    And then there are things like "OnStar". Even if you're not a subscriber, someone could track your every move in the vehicle including recording conversations in the vehicle without your knowledge.

    Same goes for cell phones so far as locating the phone and you if you're carrying it with you (and who wouldn't?).

    Heh... and people are (pun intended) bugged about the NSA listening in on phone calls and then they use something like Google or IE or credit/debit cards, etc, etc. Even if you go offline and only use cash, it doesn't always help thanks to face recognition software and bloody cameras everywhere.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • When I left Pro football in 2012 (I was not a player.), the NFL was trying to get RFID chips in helmets or pads but it was being blocked by the players' union. One of the NFL's justifications for implementing the RFID chips was to study player movement/speed prior to player concussions. It would have been a boon to work with that data.

    In 2012, tracking player participation was largely a manual effort. I immediately thought how great it would be to have an automated system to definitively say whether a player was on the field for a given play. If the chips are accurate enough, and the article indicates that they are, the player participation process could be streamlined immensely.

  • Market attribution in my field is similar to this. Tracking people across digital channels and devices anonymously of course. This is a vast amount of information at high velocities that is trying to to determine what is truly driving a consumer to the last click of an ad and ultimately a conversion on a clients website.

    If you think about that, path analysis with machine learning is extremely important. There are so many variables across channel and device that either push a consumer from Ad 1 to Ad 10. You have to measure everything that happened in between much like you would of a basketball player on a court when he or her made a decision to go right versus left.

    My role as the database professional in this world is to build the infrastructure, manage the data, extract the data and help fill the void with the analyst to where the entire process is a lot more seamless than what it would be without me.

  • Jeff Moden (1/14/2016)


    ...

    Same goes for cell phones so far as locating the phone and you if you're carrying it with you (and who wouldn't?).

    ...

    Heh... and people are (pun intended) bugged about the NSA listening in on phone calls and then they use something like Google or IE or credit/debit cards, etc, etc. Even if you go offline and only use cash, it doesn't always help thanks to face recognition software and bloody cameras everywhere.

    I'm not convinced that all the sacrifices were making in terms of privacy are even making us safer. These occasional domestic terrorists who get caught during the planning staging of an attack, because they did something stupid like post their allegiance to ISIL on Facebook or purchase a fully automatic rifle from CraigsList, they're just the tip of the iceberg. Real terrorists meet face to face or use burner phones, and they couldn't care less about social media. The problem with law enforcement relying too much on digital surveillance and evidence is that the really dangerous criminals, like the ones who organized the 9/11 attacks, know how to operate "under the radar screen".

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

  • Jeff Moden (1/14/2016)


    Insurance companies are already doing this although I don't know if they actually track geo-location but it seems logical they would because they can. They have this little gizmo that you put in the diagnostic port of your vehicle and leave it. It somehow transmits information to the insurance company about acceleration, braking, what gear the vehicle is in, and more. It could (in theory and don't know if it actually does) track you by geo-location and, in theory, compare how fast you're going to what the speed limit is.

    My son has to have a "black box" in his car for insurance purposes. I am sure that it captures more information than they claim.

    Gaz

    -- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!

  • Gary Varga (1/14/2016)


    Jeff Moden (1/14/2016)


    Insurance companies are already doing this although I don't know if they actually track geo-location but it seems logical they would because they can. They have this little gizmo that you put in the diagnostic port of your vehicle and leave it. It somehow transmits information to the insurance company about acceleration, braking, what gear the vehicle is in, and more. It could (in theory and don't know if it actually does) track you by geo-location and, in theory, compare how fast you're going to what the speed limit is.

    My son has to have a "black box" in his car for insurance purposes. I am sure that it captures more information than they claim.

    In addition to driving patterns, I'm sure that keeping stats on where and when the car is driven can be useful for risk classification. For example, the insurance company could make assumptions about someone who routinely drives back home from the bar and club district at 1:00 am, which is all the more reason to take a cab or carpool with a designated driver. It's only a matter of time before this type of data will become subject for subpoena in criminal and even civil cases.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

  • Eric M Russell (1/14/2016)


    I'm not convinced that all the sacrifices were making in terms of privacy are even making us safer. These occasional domestic terrorists who get caught during the planning staging of an attack, because they did something stupid like post their allegiance to ISIL on Facebook or purchase a fully automatic rifle from CraigsList, they're just the tip of the iceberg. Real terrorists meet face to face or use burner phones, and they couldn't care less about social media. The problem with law enforcement relying too much on digital surveillance and evidence is that the really dangerous criminals, like the ones who organized the 9/11 attacks, know how to operate "under the radar screen".

    Low hanging fruit is always easy to pick. Not to defend it, we don't know how many, if any, terrorist acts have been prevented in the USA by dragnet surveillance. Clearly it didn't stop the Boston pressure cooker bombers or the couple in San Bernardino or the two idiots who drove from Arizona to Texas to try to shoot up a Draw Muhammad cartoon contest, even though one of those two was a known radical. The list can go on. Meanwhile, I might have to take my shoes off when I fly to DC at the end of the month.

    I worked for a police department pre-9/11. I helped with database support for a major investigation involving staged car accidents and just to see what might happen I matched the surveillance database license plates against the city's traffic accident database: two cars that hit each other had been seen an hour earlier at one of the suspect's location. Low hanging fruit, or, if you prefer, ritual idiocy.

    I did a stint at a taxi company 12 years ago or so, and they had GPS and mobile terminals. We'd occasionally pull the location data for a car that had a complaint, and it was amazing how we could geo-map it and see exactly where they had been when they were late for a schedule pickup. In a similar vein, I read about a couple that was moving cross-country. They bought an iPhone and an extended battery and put it in one of the boxes so they could track the movers as their stuff went along the highway, which worked well because the movers arrived at the destination a couple of days early.

    So pluses and minuses. I know my cell phone can track me everywhere, I've known that since the '90s. And if stores want to track my movement through a store, there's not much I can do about it except accept it, or put my phone in airplane mode, or not go to stores anymore. The tech is going to get used, the question is how invasive will it prove.

    -----
    [font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]

  • Eric M Russell (1/14/2016)


    ... The NFL is also starting to use sensors to track their players, but with different goals. They are monitoring workloads, trying to ensure the health and peak performance of players ...

    Something like RedGate NFL Monitor? Can you kill opposing team members who are blocking? 🙂

    I'm not sure we're going to get sharks with laser beams, which is what we might need.

  • There are certainly huge potentials for abuse with this technology, but there are also some interesting positive, proactive things we can do.

    My point is that there are opportunities here for data analysis in terms of employment for those that learn how to work with spatial data beyond mapping.

  • I agree lots of opportunities. The challenge is whether we really have the option to opt-in to a lot of the data collection and have some control/knowledge about how its used. If you install the blackbox to get lower insurance rates can that data be used by law enforcement to track your movements (or at least the car), or write you a ticket based on speeding? The opt-in part is hard. Yes, I can turn off my phone (and wrap it aluminum foil), but that negates a lot of the usefulness of the phone (and perhaps those "off" periods might be used to infer bad behavior?).

    I think data retention is going to be the place where we as consumers can exert some power. Maybe you can track me in the mall, but you only get to keep it 7 days.

  • Eric M Russell (1/14/2016)


    Gary Varga (1/14/2016)


    Jeff Moden (1/14/2016)


    Insurance companies are already doing this although I don't know if they actually track geo-location but it seems logical they would because they can. They have this little gizmo that you put in the diagnostic port of your vehicle and leave it. It somehow transmits information to the insurance company about acceleration, braking, what gear the vehicle is in, and more. It could (in theory and don't know if it actually does) track you by geo-location and, in theory, compare how fast you're going to what the speed limit is.

    My son has to have a "black box" in his car for insurance purposes. I am sure that it captures more information than they claim.

    In addition to driving patterns, I'm sure that keeping stats on where and when the car is driven can be useful for risk classification. For example, the insurance company could make assumptions about someone who routinely drives back home from the bar and club district at 1:00 am, which is all the more reason to take a cab or carpool with a designated driver. It's only a matter of time before this type of data will become subject for subpoena in criminal and even civil cases.

    In my son's case it is the end of his shift. Assumption are dangerous.

    Gaz

    -- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!

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