KinaTrax’s marker-less motion capture system can provide pitching and hitting biomechanics data in games. Beginning with the 2020 season, users will be able to access that information in a new mixed-reality environment while the game is still being played.

Software engineer Javier Olaya led development of KinaTrax AR, which will use a Magic Leap One to enable athletes and coaches to replay in-game data in an immersive environment. KinaTrax produces a skeletal recreation of pitches and swings, and those avatars will now be rendered with real-life scaling. Users can overlay multiple swings or pitches—the skeletons will appear in different colors—to look for differences in mechanics.

“It’s a new way to see the data,” Olaya says. “Right now, they see it in a two-dimensional way even though it’s a 3D software. Mixed reality is a new dimension, so they will be able to see it life-size and be able to see it from every angle.”

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When KinaTrax began development of the project back in April, only the Magic Leap One had the necessary technical specifications, but the app will soon support the newly released Microsoft HoloLens 2 as well. (KinaTrax will hand-deliver a Magic Leap One to each client and offer an on-site tutorial.) There are also plans to enhance KinaTrax AR with overlays of text and metrics that will include such information as joint angles—the shoulder is abducted 90 degrees during a pitch, for instance. KinaTrax currently works with four MLB clients: the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox and another that it declined to identify per the club’s wishes.

KinaTrax CEO Steven Cadavid said his team eschewed virtual reality to allow the user to walk around the digital players in the app. The user can designate where home plate or the rubber is in whatever space he’s in. “It can be on actual mound or in your home,” Cadavid says. “You have the ability to walk around it safely.”

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Cadavid adds that KinaTrax will also offer in-game processing next season so players can visualize results within the same inning. “There will be a slight trade-off on accuracy,” he says, “but at least they’ll have a skeleton they can review in near-real time.” Another project in the works is the ability to live-stream KinaTrax data to other locations. If, for instance, a rehabbing big-league pitcher is throwing to hitters on the game mound of a big league ballpark, a trainer or coach at the club’s spring training facility would be able to watch in real-time.

KinaTrax previously relied on some human data input, such as during the Cubs’ 2016 World Series run, but it is now fully automated. An ongoing validation study with Driveline Baseball is helping increase the same size to continue training and refining the algorithms.

Such non-invasive motion-capture systems are the only option for in-game data collection. Simi Motion is the other major operator in the space, with several MLB clients including the Minnesota Twins.

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