Sports keeps modernising as athletes demand the best ways to practice, the most immersive ways to train, and fans keep demanding the best ways to view and interact with their favourite pastime. Every week here on VRFocus we collate the top sports stories of the week which involve new technologies.
Whether you’re a sports fan or just a technology buff, you’ll find some fascinating facts in our news stories below – make sure to check back at the same time next week for more from the world of sport.
Get Augmented Reality ‘Immersive View’ Of The Super Bowl
Going to a busy event can be a hassle, but StubHub are making it easier than ever for Super Bowl fans to attend the biggest NFL event of the year. Everything in the immersive view experience allows you to understand every aspect of the game and event. Parking, picking up tickets, attending pre-game events, finding seating, everything can be done and organised through your phone, and with augmented reality (AR) capabilities to boot.
Matt Swan, StubHub CTO says the new immersive view shows clear value for consumers; “StubHub’s immersive view experience not only demonstrates a practical use case for AR within ticketing and live events, but also serves as an important milestone for the industry. When it comes to our users, we’re passionate about providing solutions in ticket buying and selling that offer a clear value. As the first ticketing player to implement this technology, we hope to further enhance the purchasing experience ahead of the biggest day in football.”
Users on iOS devices will be able to use immersive view on the Super Bowl ticket buyers landing page on the StubHub app.
Kindred Futures And Zappar Collaborate On Mixed Reality
Two companies are coming together to change how we look at sports statistics, fantasy leagues and more. They hope to present sports with mixed reality (MR) taking fans deeper into the sporting experience and making it more immersive and interesting than ever before.
Jeremy Yates from Zappar commented “The main barrier of getting mixed reality to the mass market is the cost of new hardware. There’s an exciting future of data visualisation, with mixed reality providing an immersive and engaging way to both view and interact with information. This exploration is all part of our goal of democratising this technology. We’re very excited about partnering with Kindred to see how we can drive innovation and bring the future closer to today.”
Meanwhile, Will Mace, head of Kindred Futures has said; “We’re very passionate about ensuring that audiences are given enough data to make sensible gaming decisions and think that our experiment with Zappar is an exciting step in the right direction.”
We’ll have more news on the new technology as we get it.
U.S. Ski Team Trained In Virtual Reality For Olympics
The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games are approaching fast, and SportTechie reports that the U.S. ski team have been practicing hard using virtual reality (VR) for the event. STRIVR has built VR training programs for the NFL, and now they’ve built recreation of the ski courses that will be featured during the Winter Olympics, giving athletes the opportunity to train.
Troy Taylor, high performance director at U.S. Ski & Snowboard said; “Obviously there is nothing that can replace the real world experience, but VR is proving its worth in terms of allowing an athlete to see the course they will race on before they actually compete.”
Hopefully the knowledge the VR practice has given them will give them a real world edge on the slopes too, though the proof will come when the events kick off on February 10th.
For all of the latest sports news in the world of VR, makes sure to keep reading VRFocus.
