The 2023 Technology Baseball Carnival was held at the Tainan Asia-Pacific International Baseball Training Center on November 4. Vice President Lai Ching-de, Mayor Wei-zhe Huang , Chairman Cheng-wen Wu of National Sports Science Center, Chairman Shui-sue Hung of Catcher Technology, Director Wen-shiong Liu of Industrial Research Institute, as well as Zhi-shian Yeh and Ching-wen Shen—two former national players of Giants Little League jointly served as the guests to kick off the event. The 2023 Technology Baseball Carnival was hosted by the Tainan City Government and STUST, sponsored by Catcher Technology Co., Ltd. The activities included a technology baseball tournament, a sports fair, and a garden party. STUST and Catcher Technology also designated the day was as a family day, attracting at least one thousand people to watch the game to make the event very lively.

【A group photo of 2023 Technology Baseball Carnival】

Vice President Lai Ching-de said that the government would continue to support the development of sports technology. In the future, artificial intelligence may be used to collect military intelligence on the baseball field, such as players’ competition habits and predict players’ determination, which will be very helpful for international competitions. Baseball culture is the future. As an important part of social civilization, the introduction of science and technology is even more indispensable. We should work together on the road to a healthy Taiwan to make our people healthier and hope that the world will embrace Taiwan.

【A group photo of the kick-off VIPs in the 2023 Technology Baseball Carnival】

In order to allow the audience to enjoy a different baseball game experience brought by sports technology, STUST has set up multiple sets of high-speed cameras on the field to capture the two women's baseball teams of Taipei City University and National Taiwan Sports University through video streaming technology and multi-machine linkage images. The technology could catch a great variety of images of the pitchers and batters of four Little League teams, including Tainan City Shiejin Elementary School, Yizai Elementary School, Yongshin Elementary School, and Liren Elementary School. Together with the Sports Science Team of National Cheng Kung University, they developed AI computer vision for real-time pitching. The technology of analyzing the joint motion trajectories, speed, and hitting point angle measurement of pitching and batter's swing could accurately reconstruct the players' movement trajectories, allowing the six teams in this event to personally experience the real help of technology to players. In addition to allowing the audience to instantly appreciate the players' sports data performance, it also used the main perspective to allow passionate baseball fans to be immersed in the scene and experience an immersive visual enjoyment. In addition, in order to enable people who were unable to come to watch the game to enjoy the multi-angle viewing experience in person, this event combined 5G wireless transmission technology to carry out live broadcast of the event and launch a unique sports technology exhibition competition.

【Vice President Lai Ching-de was delivering a speech at the 2023 Technology Baseball Carnival.】

In addition to visual enjoyment, the carnival also featured a sports market for people to experience in person. The market exhibits included STUST’s Augmented Reality (AR) Catcher, where you can experience the fun of squatting and use motion recognition technology. Using the inertial measurement sensor iIMU, a motion detection system worn on the waist was designed to instantly analyze the batter's striking posture, plotted the rotation trajectory, and assisted in adjusting the striking posture. The passing and catching laboratory exhibits b4-app, which combines artificial intelligence machine vision and human-computer interaction technology, turned iPhone into a powerful sports science tool. AI automatically recorded high-speed images and provided key sports scientific data in real time, and the built-in fan community platform could increase interactive fun. In addition, the passing and catching laboratory also demonstrated Smart Bullpen 2.0, which provides comprehensive and accurate sports performance data and multi-view high-speed images. The laboratory also cooperated with Chengdu University's employees to reconstruct 3D trajectories, using machine vision algorithms and artificial intelligence technology to form a deep understanding of sports performance.

【Tainan Mayor Wei-zhe Huang was delivering a speech at the 2023 Technology Baseball Carnival.】

The Industrial Technology Research Institute demonstrated the power of sports technology sensing and data analysis. Through the integration of posture recognition and sensing trajectory tracking mechanisms, it obtained muscle strength training data and formulated kinetic chain training prescriptions for baseball players' personalized weight training goals and ability-specific training. National Tsinghua University used voiceprint analysis that is unique in the world and applied it to the development of baseball technology systems. It recorded the hitting sounds of balls and bats, used AI to instantly analyze the quality of batting and the location of the bat’s hitting point, providing detailed information about whether the hitter hit the ball accurately, and allowed the hitter to fine-tune the hitting position to achieve the best hitting performance.

【Cheng-wen Wu, President of STUST and Chairman of the National Sports Science Center, was delivering a speech at the 2023 Science and Technology Baseball Carnival.】

Cheng-wen Wu, President of STUST and Chairman of the National Sports Science Center, expressed his gratitude to the distinguished guests and Catcher Technology Co., Ltd. for their sponsorship. He said that Taiwan's transition from traditional sports science research to sports technology combined with industrial development had begun to take shape. This represented an important process for the integration of sports culture into the development of Taiwan's social civilization. He hoped that through the establishment of the National Sports Science Center, it could assist top players and promote Taiwan's technology industry to cultivate sports technology and elevate Taiwan's social civilization to the level of an advanced country.

【Shu-shu Hong, Chairman of Catcher Technology Co., Ltd., was delivering a speech at the 2023 Technology Baseball Carnival.】

【The kickoff scene of the 2023 Technology Baseball Carnival】

【The kickoff scene of the 2023 Technology Baseball Carnival】