Tracking the ball is critical for video-based analysis of team sports. However,
it is difficult, especially in low resolution images, due to the small size of
the ball, its speed that creates motion blur, and its often being occluded by
players. In this paper, we propose a generic and principled approach to
modelling the interaction between the ball and the players while also imposing
appropriate physical constraints on the ball’s trajectory. We show that our
approach, formulated in terms of a Mixed Integer Program, is more robust and
more accurate than several state-of-the-art approaches on real-life volleyball,
basketball, and soccer sequences.

See (http://cvlab.epfl.ch/research/surv/ball-tracking) for more.