Exhibitor News

Insights From Sport Vision

1.     Tell us about what you’ll be presenting at Expand North Star 2023?

We want to present our product that allows you to track body movement without using any markers. The solution we built allows us to track human telemetry with a set of cameras observing an area and a powerful AI-based image recognition algorithm. We collect the virtual skeleton of the analysed body (body, hands, and even face) and then transmit it to the gaming engine (like Unreal). We use our inverse kinematics plugin to enhance virtual avatars and render them using mechanisms like Metahuman. This means that we can mimic human movement in virtual reality.

2.     What makes your product or service truly unique and why will investors, VCs, incubators, accelerators, and show visitors love it? 

Our system can be used in two significant niches: game-dev and sport transmissions.
Traditional transmissions of sports are losing popularity when confronted with the attractiveness of versatile content in social media and growing demand. Watching sports on a flat screen becomes too dull and obsolete. Providers constantly search for more immersive experiences for viewers to help them retain their users. Sport Vision Technology will enrich transmission with special effects, provide a game-like experience, allow for accessible replays, and convey dynamic and split-second decisions, which make watching sports on TV exciting again. Above all – we will let the spectator decide what they want to watch – allowing a free choice of perspective from any place on or off the field. Sports events transmission is worth around 18 billion USD and will rise to 93 billion USD by 2030. Systems like ours bring new types of experience to sports.

As for game-dev motion capture, the studio rents about $2000 per 4-hour session, and queue time may count for several months. Indie game companies (the most significant fraction of the game-making industry) and independent creators lack such budgets, which means they cannot afford professional studios – we're the solution. They will be able to use our mocap system. We will allow such developers to receive professional-grade motion capture services without costing a hand and a leg.
Our system consists of a plugin for Unreal Engine (support for other engines may be added), allowing for biomechanically-correct movement projection and a SaaS endpoint where videos are to be sent. We will be suitable for studios with no mocap equipment or experience on-site – we'll enable creators to use a new creation model without a traditional mocap studio. Game-dev mocap market in 2022 was worth 180 million USD and will rise to 600 million USD by 2030.

We've got inquiries from companies managing metaverses about partnerships. While organising events in the metaverse, our partners would like to synergise VR and on-site experience. 
Our cooperation will allow us to:

• Organise press&investors conferences in real time for visitors on-site and participating through the internet. It'll make these kinds of essential moments of the company more accessible and more immersive,
• Get the fans closer to their favourite singers and music bands than ever, enriching the experience in our partners' metaverses.
  In sports, we are partnering with sports leagues (like Teqball) to provide solutions for recaps and challenge resolution.

3.     Are you planning to launch any products or services, demonstrate any technologies, or sign any partnerships during the show? Please provide details to help us amplify your presence.

Unfortunately, we are not.

4.     Which sectors will grow significantly in the startup ecosystem in 2024 and why are investors looking at these sectors?

Our best guess is AI in general, and it will be in a couple of different directions - AI recognition, decision-making systems and neural linguistic processing systems.

5.     Why is Poland such an attractive market for the start-up ecosystem and what is the country’s unique appeal for would-be international investors? 

Poland has great potential in terms of AI and IT. Since a significant part of the market will be turning toward AI systems reducing the employment of the human workforce in favour of automated systems, it is essential to consider investing in a market that is in the top 10 IT markets in the world. This market is currently producing one of the highest possible competencies in AI globally.

6.     How important is the Middle East and Africa for your business, and what is your growth strategy in the region for the coming years?

As the Middle East and Africa are rapidly developing regions with significant needs in entertainment and sports, we find those regions very interesting. Our solution is affordable, and we allow it to use as SaaS, which means agencies, leagues, or game-dev studios introduce only OPEX cost into business.
As for operations in the Middle East, last year, we presented the prototype in Doha during New Tech Forum. We are considering entering Sports Accelerator. We currently plan to find a partner investor in the Middle East to provide services for the Gulf.

7.     In which ways can AI help startups reach new levels of efficiency and excellence and how is the world’s next big tech shift supporting the growth of companies in your industry?

AI startups are bringing tremendous change into the service area. It will severely reduce the employment rate in markets primarily concentrating on services. In just a couple of years, most of the benefits regarding client communication (like service centres) might be replaced by AI that will provide the first lines of support or contact customers.
As for image recognition systems, we are looking at significant changes in how entertainment is perceived. With systems like ours, movement, behaviour, and look can be borrowed from actors relieving them from the tedious tasks of performing a play and allowing them to indefinitely be a part of new movies in shape and youth. Imagine Indiana Jones performed by Harrison Ford in his 30s, recorded in 2024.
As for sports technologies, AI image recognition provides unique ways of experiencing matches from any direction or as a movie. Nowadays, transmissions are boring, so young generations abandon sports towards e-sports.

8.     How do you see the regulations for fast-growing digital sectors such as finance/banking and Web 3.0 services, and how do you believe startups should prepare for it?

We are apprehensive about market overregulation. Currently, big corporations are demonising AI because of their inability to benefit from AI. New technology brings change - not only daily but especially in our mindset. Global corporations are organisations that struggle with reducing paper use. Getting AI to them is like carrying microchips to cavemen. Unfortunately, they are the driving force of the so-called regulating market which means slowing it to a pace acceptable to the global elephants.

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