AUTOMATIC SCORING SYSTEMS FOR SPORTS KARATE

The objective of the project is to design an automated scoring system for the Kumite or Sparring category in Karate as to improve the conventional scoring system in the World Karate Federation (WKF). The project requires a suitable sensory device to be embedded with the protective equipment and a score display unit that will be fully interacting with the system. This project is intended to tackle the uncertain scoring issues due to the existing scoring system that is solely dependent on the referees’ decision. It is often prone to misjudgments, for an example; an unethical judging decision that could affect the quality of the tournament itself. The project started with the analysis of the main problem in conventional judging system and the construction of literature review base on the studies on the related publishing. The project involved six phases base on the Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology (Planning, Analysis, Design, Implementation, Testing and Deployment). As a result, a running prototype of an automatic scoring system has been created. Through the functionality testing that has been performed, the outcome shows that the main objective of the project; to create an integrated and interactive scoring system has been achieved through the ability of the system in performing the task of automatic hit detection and score display update, thus it is able to improve the conventional Karate scoring system.