Automated Story-based Commentary for Sports

• Author / Creator

  Lee, Gregory M. K.

• Automated sports commentary is a form of automated narrative and human-computer interaction. Sports commentary exists to keep the viewer informed and entertained. One way to entertain the viewer is by telling brief stories relevant to the game in progress. We introduce a system called the Sports Commentary Recommendation System (SCoReS) that can automatically suggest stories for commentators to tell during games. Through several user studies, we compared commentary using SCoReS to three other types of commentary and showed that SCoReS adds significantly to the broadcast across several enjoyment metrics. We also collected interview data from professional sports commentators who positively evaluated a demonstration of the system. We conclude that SCoReS can be a useful broadcast tool, effective at selecting stories that add to the enjoyment and watchability of sports. SCoReS is a step toward automating sports commentary, and thus automating narrative.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Information Retrieval
  • Machine Learning
  • Automated Storytelling
  • Artificial Intelligence

• Graduation date

  Fall 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3HM60

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.