ai.io, the award-winning London-based AI and technology innovator, has taken a monumental leap forward in the sports technology landscape with its acquisition of Intel’s groundbreaking 3D Athlete Tracking (3DAT) platform. This strategic move solidifies ai.io’s position as a global leader in AI-driven marker-less motion capture technology, ushering in a new era of athlete analysis for both professional and amateur sports enthusiasts worldwide.
Intel’s 3DAT technology, originally developed to showcase the potential of AI at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and featured prominently at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, has been used to analyze professional and amateur athletes across many sports, such as soccer, American football, baseball, swimming, and cricket, with great success. Powered by Intel’s state-of-the-art Xeon processors and Habana Gaudi deep learning processors, as well as optimized with Intel’s OpenVino toolkit, 3DAT has consistently demonstrated its prowess in the realm of sports analytics.
With the acquisition of 3DAT, ai.io will assume responsibility for the ongoing development and deployment of this cutting-edge technology, building upon the foundation laid by Intel’s visionary team.
Darren Peries, Founder and CEO at ai.io, expressed his enthusiasm, saying, “We have been working with Intel and 3DAT for the past several years and have been impressed with the tech leadership and breakthrough platforms the Intel team has developed. We are grateful that our ongoing collaboration with Intel will continue to integrate ai.io’s platforms across Intel’s ecosystem of customers and partners.”
Christoph Schell, Intel’s EVP and Chief Commercial Officer, echoed this sentiment, stating, “At Intel, we believe ai.io is the right company to continue to develop, deploy, and scale the 3DAT platform. This is a prime example of ‘It Starts With Intel’ in action, where we develop tools for breakthrough companies to take Intel technologies to go and change the world. We are excited to continue working with ai.io on a shared long-term vision.”
Through ai.io’s proprietary technology, aiScout, players can download the mobile app and complete a series of assessments and drills in any backyard, field, or open space via their mobile phone. The aiScout platform will analyze a player’s ability through the fully connected AI platform. Via current partnerships with leagues & teams like Major League Soccer (“MLS”), Chelsea FC, Burnley FC and others, clubs and all types of sports organizations will be able to evaluate players via the data generated. Players who score highly will be offered a chance to trial with these clubs. Additionally, players may be invited to test at ai.io’s aiLabs, physical space age Elite Performance labs, focusing on testing both physical and cognitive abilities at the elite level.
ai.io’s core platform includes:
aiScout: A talent analysis and development platform that enables leagues and clubs to engage, analyze, rate, score, trial, develop, and scout amateur players globally, all through a mobile app. The platform comprises a player app, scout app, and recruitment control center.
aiLabs: Multi-use elite performance labs equipped with cutting-edge technology and gold-standard equipment, offering real-time physical and cognitive analysis, actionable insights, and connected data for both professional and amateur athletes and club staff.
3DAT will now be added to the ai.io platform, where further development and expansion on 3DAT’s groundbreaking technology, that will allow an AI-aaS platform to be available for others to utilize as an SDK to benefit developers all over the world.
Richard Felton Thomas, ai.io’s COO & Director Sports Science shared his excitement, “By encouraging aspirational players and fans to download our aiScout app and be filmed replicating club-standard drills on their mobile devices, players have had success, and in some cases are now playing in the English Premier League. We are thrilled about this partnership with Intel and greatly look forward to advancing our platforms, providing everyone with opportunities to be seen, analyzed, scored, scouted and developed by leagues and teams worldwide.”
