Video Sequence Analysis for On-Table Tennis Player Ranking and Analysis

With the rapidly developing of the scientific research in the field of sports, big data analytics and information science are used to carry out technical and tactical statistical analysis of competition or training videos. The table tennis is a skill oriented sport. The technique and tactics in table tennis are the core factors to win the game. With the endlessly emerging innovative playing techniques and tactics, the players have their own competition styles. According to the competition events among athletes, the athletes’ competition relationship network is constructed and the players’ ranking is established. The ranking can be used to help table tennis players improve daily training and understand their ability. In this paper, the table tennis players’ ranking is established their competition videos and their prestige scores in the table tennis players’ competition relationship network.

The Mediocre Growth of a Grandiose Simpleton: An Analysis of Howard Jackobson’s The Mighty Walzer.

The Mighty Walzer is the story of a boy who dreams of winning fame, fortune and the adoration of beautiful women, as a table tennis player. He wants to make his life grandiose like all of us. However, it is a pity that he fails. Oliver, the protagonist is not disheartened. Even though he has not struck his fortune, life gives him other riches- the riches of life and growing up itself. Thus, the novel can be seen as the celebration of the trivial processes of growing up. The more we read, the more we realise that the mediocre lives presented in the novel are grandiose in their own ways. Thus, the author is examining the grandiosities of our mediocre lives. The novel is the life story of each and every one of us. It is the celebration of the simple life of a commoner with its trivialities and mediocrities. However, there is an exuberant grandiosity in this existence. It is this grandiose process of life which is emphasised in this study. Set in the1950s England, The Mighty Walzer is semi-autobiographical. Howard Jacobson in the veil of the character Oliver,Walzer depicts his own self as a confused Jewish boy growing up in Manchester. When it comes to home, nothing is closer to heart than the childhood memories. Jacobson’s the Mighty Walzer is indeed a childhood memoir. The novel is a bildungs roman narrative. It is absolutely hilarious, comic and sublime. It has the grace and charm of a childhood dream. Jacobson’s wit was lauded from all quarters, when the novel was first published. Sunday Times observes: “Jacobson writes with agility that gives pleasure akin to humour even when it isn’t actually funny. It is the sheer charm of his intelligence that feels like wit.” The Independent in its review quotes: “This mature novel has the sustained exuberance and passion of his youthful writing but within an epic…. An achingly funny book….An amazing achievement….There is few novelists today who can imbue the trifles of life with such poetry.” Jacobson wrote this rollicking, loose limbed, semi-autobiographical novel in Australia at the end of 90s, having finally put enough distance between events to revisit the humiliation. He puts before us a number of childhood milieus in a straight forward and grandiose fashion. There is no holding back when it comes to a number of intimate sexual and mental give and takes. It is these truthful ejaculations that make the novel hilarious. One can really denominate the novel in Mario Vargas Illosa’s terms as a piece of ‘mental masturbation.’Howard Jacobson amuses his readers in The Mighty Walzer. The characters and milieus in the novel are regular, common and mediocre. We can connect ourselves with the various characters and their eccentricities. The more we go into the novel, the more we realize that the desires, anxieties, failures, successes, sufferings and frailties of the characters are in fact the mirror reflections of our own milieus. Thus, when we look at with disdain the ‘jacking off’ –of Oliver, Sheeney’s women hunting, Sabine’s promiscuity, Aunt Fay’s mid 30’s love affair etc., we are pitying our own repressed desires and inhibitions. Such is the psychological depth with which each of the characters are handled.

Design enhancement of overall Paralympics wheelchair for para table tennis competition

This study focused on enhancing the performance of the para table tennis player by implementing design modifications to the wheelchair to increase the sweep area of the player. In this article, a detailed study of pressure distribution on the player’s seat during play was performed to facilitate potential enhancements to the wheelchair that would alleviate issues that could arise from long hours of training and actual competition. Some of these issues include the discomfort and fatigue that could develop from an imbalanced posture resulting in imbalanced seat pressure distribution exerted on the gluteus maximus, as well as pressure sores that could develop during training and competition. Such issues impact the immediate and long-term development of competitiveness in the player. Through a systematic and quantitative understanding of the situation, further structural enhancements to the wheelchair as well as modifications to the training methodologies, strategies and techniques of gameplay could be implemented.

Reconstruction of Human Skills by Using PCA and Transferring them to a Robot

This paper discusses human skills enabling rapid adaptation to a changing environment, e.g., when a human table tennis player hits an incoming ball, and describes how to transfer these skills to a robot. Human skills are classified into motor and cognitive. Motor skills are functions involving precise limb movement with the intent to perform a specific act, i.e., hitting a ball. Cognitive skills are functions involving meaningful responses to external stimuli. We extract these skills from observing human movement using principal component analysis and generalize these skills as a schema for a generalized motor program. We also describe table tennis matches between a human opponent and a robot to which these skills have been transferred.