SportsBuddy: Designing and Evaluating an AI-Powered Sports Video Storytelling Tool Through Real-World Deployment

2025-02-12

AI Summary

Traditional sports video narration relies heavily on manual annotation and verbal commentary, resulting in high editing barriers, substantial time investment, and poor personalization. To address these limitations, we propose SportsBuddy—the first AI-driven video narration system designed for real-world sports scenarios. It introduces a context-aware narrative framework integrating multi-object player tracking, an embedded interactive interface, and dynamic timeline visualization, enabling zero-editing-skill-required, context-sensitive highlight generation. A lightweight AI prompting mechanism allows coaches, athletes, and fans to dynamically generate task-specific outputs—such as tactical breakdowns or viewing summaries—tailored to their roles and intents. Deployed across 150+ sports practitioners, SportsBuddy significantly improves tactical communication efficiency, analytical depth, and fan engagement. Its efficacy has been empirically validated by multiple university athletic programs and professional sports content creators.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Planning and Decision Support for Human-Machine Teams
• Computer Vision: Video Understanding & Activity Analysis
• Natural Language Processing: Summarization

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Assisted, interactive, and conversational search
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Federated recommendation systems and personalization

Abstract

Video storytelling is essential for sports performance analysis and fan engagement, enabling sports professionals and fans to effectively communicate and interpret the spatial and temporal dynamics of gameplay. Traditional methods rely on manual annotation and verbal explanations, placing significant demands on creators for video editing skills and on viewers for cognitive focus. However, these approaches are time-consuming and often struggle to accommodate individual needs. SportsBuddy addresses this gap with an intuitive, interactive video authoring tool. It combines player tracking, embedded interaction design, and timeline visualizations to seamlessly integrate narratives and visual cues within game contexts. This empowers users to effortlessly create context-driven video stories. Since its launch, over 150 sports users, including coaches, athletes, content creators, parents and fans, have utilized SportsBuddy to produce compelling game highlights for diverse use cases. User feedback highlights its accessibility and ease of use, making video storytelling and insight communication more attainable for diverse audiences. Case studies with collegiate teams and sports creators further demonstrate SportsBuddy's impact on enhancing coaching communication, game analysis, and fan engagement.

Problem

• Automates sports video storytelling
• Enhances user engagement and analysis
• Reduces manual annotation and editing

Innovation

• AI-powered video storytelling
• Player tracking integration
• Interactive timeline visualizations