How artificial intelligence helps judges in sports like skating and gymnastics | Other Sports | sports

What if robots could put an end to controversies? Between scandals and suspicions, lArtificial intelligence advances in some sports as a way to help judges, such as gymnastics or skating.

Will these ‘technological judges’ earn their place alongside humans at the edge of skating rinks or exercise mats?

The reflection is already advanced in gymnastics, tells AFP Nicolas Tordi, judge and scientific expert of the French Federation of this sport. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) “works with Fujitsu” on this issue, he explains.

The system, using 3D cameras, consists of recognizing the jumps or technical gestures typical of gymnastics, where the note is composed taking into account the difficulties and the execution.

“The system recognizes the figure and detects, for example, if it is a triple backwards somersault”, but “on the other hand, if the toes are bent in the triple backwards, Fujitsu does not know (…) but that will come” Nicolas Tordi explains.

In sports where decisions are made by judges, the shadow of a doubt often creates problems.

At last year’s Olympics in Tokyo, champion Nikita Nagornyy, celebrating the Russian team gold medal, made a statement to that effect: “I was worried if the judges could give the medal to the host country”.

The idea is to provide “fairer and more precise assistance” taking into account that “assessment becomes increasingly sophisticated and difficult”explains the Fujitsu company, asked by AFP.

This system was already tested at the World Gymnastics Championships in 2019 and at the one that took place late in 2021 in Japan, after the Tokyo Olympics. In those competitions, where it was eventually able to help the flesh and blood judges, the system fed its database.

“The train is moving” and “there is a market” with outlets beyond the sports sector, says Nicolas Tordi.

financial brake

“Afterwards, you can’t imagine doing a workout without it. It is the system with which they are going to evaluate you, ”she indicates.

This can be a financial obstacle, also underlined by Anthony Leroy, international figure skating judge and referee, who is living his third Olympic Games in Beijing.

Currently, only the video can be of assistance to skating judges. In that discipline, the valuation system changed in 2005, after the scandal of the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, where a French judge was suspended.

“There are experiments and projects in gestation, but it has never been done in competition until now,” explains Anthony Leroy. “If the human part were completely replaced by a technology, the nuances would be missing”esteem.

robots and art

For the technical part “it could be a plus” with robots trained “to recognize a pirouette”.

But for the artistic part, “if you ask a robot to look at a Picasso, a Van Gogh or a Klimt, what is it going to tell you?”, he wonders.

“When Katarina Witt decides to pay homage to Sarajevo (where she had been Olympic champion in 1984), when it was in the middle of war (at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994), what do you want a machine to understand from all that?”, insist.

Asked if such a system can judge artistic elements, Fujitsu told AFP that “artificial intelligence is being used more and more in art” and while the system “cannot make a complete evaluation, it is capable of evaluating artistic elements”.

Developed for gymnastics, this technology could be “applied to other sports”, says the Japanese company.

In winter sports, in addition to skating, disciplines such as freestyle skiing could also be affected by these types of technological advances. (D)