How Wimbledon will use IBM's Watson to serve up data - BBC News

If you're lucky enough to get a ticket to this year's Wimbledon tennis championships, be prepared to be scanned by a supercomputer. Cameras linked to IBM's Watson "machine-learning" platform may be monitoring your facial expressions and trying to work out what emotions you are displaying. If Watson learns quickly enough over the fortnight, it will apparently be able to work out which player you are supporting just by reading your face. The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and its tech partner IBM are remaining tight-lipped on the details of the new technology - not least because it needs legal approval and raises privacy concerns. But it is another example of how sport is becoming increasingly digital, for fans, players and venues alike. Even if Watson isn't tracking your every cheer and grimace at the championships - which begin on Monday 27 June - it will be digesting millions of conversations on social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and using natural language processing to identify common topics - not necessarily just about tennis.