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11/22/2024 02:54:20 pm

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Milwaukee Bucks Turn to Facial Recognition Technology as Secret Weapon

Milwaukee Bucks

(Photo : Reuters) The facial recognition technology will allow the Bucks to figure out which players from college or the NBA have what it takes to make their team better.


The Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) are trying to get every advantage they can for their team's future by turning to technology - specifically facial recognition - to assist in putting together better players who will be able to make a great team.

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Wesley Edens and Mark Lasry, the owners of the Bucks who bought the team for $550 million in April, currently reached out to facial coding expert Dan Hill to go beyond mere statistics and numbers.

Instead, they wish to bring science into the fold and make it a prime element into their team's equation; one they hope will give them the edge. The facial recognition technology will allow them to figure out which players from college or the National Basketball Association (NBA) have what it takes to make their team better.

"I look for quick, micro-expressions and instances of the say/feel gap -- said this, but felt that -- to guard clients against what I call speed bumps: hidden objections that keep a person from buying, if not recognized and addressed," Hill told The New York Times.

The Bucks have already started using the methods of Hill prior to the NBA draft. They used the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) to read players' faces to identify things like happiness, surprise, contempt, disgust, sadness, anger, and fear.

While the coaches and staff spend a lot of time evaluating and analyzing the players, assistant General Manager (GM) David Morway said that the difficult piece of the puzzle is the psychological issues, character and personality issues, and also team chemistry issues.

It is the hope of team psychologist Ramel Smith that the technology will become the Bucks' secret weapon.

Jeff Foster has been doing this type of work for 16 years was hired by the National Football League (NFL) scouting combine in 2011 to analyze facial gestures of top prospects when asked questions.

"I believe his insights could be valuable in helping teams understand an athlete's emotional makeup and provide implications for how he may perform, both on and off the field," Foster says.

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