The artificial intelligence (AI) made headlines in the field of sports in China last year after a high-profile Go competition between AlphaGo and South Korea's Lee Se-dol, but now the AI has went deeper into grass-roots sports.
Though wearable devices can collect training data for common people, the grass-roots players often find it hard to have a solid feedback over their daily sports practices.
Dai Weiyong, former chief of the electric information center of the General Administration of Sport of China, said AI could help people have a better participation in sports.
"The industrial automation has benefited everyone. With the help of AI, people may be better able to analyze and improve themselves with real things like replay rather than only relying on their memory or impression," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Global Artificial Intelligence Technology Conference on Monday in Beijing.
AI has started to benefit the professional athletes in many aspects.
"Traditionally, the coaches judge players' training condition based only on impression, but now they can make a deeper analysis of every move based on video recording, which is also part of AI," Dai said.
China has aimed to promote sports in the country as a national strategy, highlighted by the country playing host to three high-profile international sports events: the 2019 basketball world championship, 2022 Winter Olympic Games as well as 2022 Asian Games.
Thus, sports-related social apps have sprouted to help the grass roots have a better experience in sports. Former basketball player Wang Hai-bin has also co-developed an app for grass-roots basketballers.
The app, based on four digital -recording cameras at different basketball courts, offers recording for players to analyze their performance in the games recorded.
"The grass roots deserve a better basketball experience," Wang said. "With the help of the technology, this is no longer far away from us."
