Imagine a stadium where ultra-high-resolution video feeds and camera-carrying drones track how individual players’ joints flex during a game, how high they jump or fast they run—and, using AI, precisely identify athletes’ risk of injury in real time.
Coaches and elite athletes are betting on new technologies that combine artificial intelligence with video to predict injuries before they happen and provide highly tailored prescriptions for workouts and practice drills to reduce the risk of getting hurt. In coming years, computer-vision technologies similar to those used in facial-recognition systems at airport checkpoints will take such analysis to a new level, making the wearable sensors in wide use by athletes today unnecessary, sports-analytics experts predict.