SmartCrop-H: AI-Based Cropping of Ice Hockey Videos

Abstract

Sports multimedia plays a central role in captivating audiences on social media platforms. However, fast-paced sports such as ice hockey pose unique challenges due to their swift gameplay and the small puck size, making object tracking-based video adaptation for social media a complex task. In this context, we introduce SmartCrop-H, an innovative ice hockey video cropping tool powered by advanced AI models. It excels at tracking the puck and ensuring that crucial gameplay remains the center of attention, regardless of the desired target aspect ratio. The tool combines various techniques including object detection, scene detection, outlier detection, and smoothing, to deliver high-quality ratio-adapted videos. In this demonstration, we showcase SmartCrop-H in real-world scenarios through an intuitive step-by-step Graphical Use Interface (GUI) that vividly illustrates how the tool works. The demonstration emphasizes the vital role of AI in enhancing the sports viewing experience, and its importance in the dynamic realm of social media content distribution. A video of the demo can be found here: https://youtu.be/rMmYOCM-k7A.