IBM Watson recruits Orreco for some data-driven coaching

24 Sep 2015

One of the biggest brains on the internet has sought out help from an Irish sports performance company, with IBM’s Watson recruiting Orreco to develop some training apps.

Orreco’s back catalogue of sports data will be streamed through Watson in the first global partnership for the mega computer.

The new app, called ‘Coach Watson’, will essentially amplify Orreco’s tools – which we learned a lot about when interviewing co-founder Brian Moore recently.

The Sligo start-up has developed unique biomarker technology that analyses blood and other data in an elite athlete’s body to devise ways of ensuring the athlete achieves peak performance.

Orreco works by liaising with teams and constructing targets and goals tailored to individual athletes, which is where plenty of mainstream sports seem to be going now.

Data analytics, sport and a supercomputer

For those of you that don’t know, Watson is IBM’s commercially available superbrain, basically.

It can process huge volumes of data in minutes, understands complex questions posed in natural language, and suggests evidence-based answers.

It’s ever-evolving, with it now even capable of off-the-cuff judgements and terribly intricate news gathering.

One of Watson’s tricks is it attempting to work you out by reading some text that you have written.

It can also draw in huge mounds of searchable information on pretty much anything you want, through its news explorer tool.

Now, with Orreco, it’s targeting sports performance.

Main image via Shutterstock

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Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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