Category: Mi HIepa

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This Week In VR Sport: NextVR Bring WWE To Viewers, VR Empowering Referees And Pizza Hut Join NFL

Every weekend VRFocus brings you a number of sports and eSports related virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) stories as part of This Week In VR Sport. This week, NextVR have released their highlights of the WWE Summer Slam 2018 for viewers to enjoy, football referees will soon be able to use VR to put themselfs into the shoes of the players and Pizza Hut team up with NFL for a number of promotions including packaging that features an AR videogame. 

WWE Summer Slam Kickoff

WWE Sumer Slam 2018 Highlights Come To NextVR App

NextVR, the entertainment platform that puts viewers closer then ever to the action has announced that their coverage of the WWE Summer Slam 2018 is now available to watch once again in the NextVR app. This VR experience gives fans a chance to be ringside to all the action and experience the thrill of each match like never before.

Now available in the app to re-watch whenever they want, fans will be able to enjoy highlights from select WWE Summer Slam 2018 matches and events and feel like they are in the ring themselves. The content can be enjoined on any NextVR compatible VR devices including Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream, Windows Mixed Reality and PlayStation VR.

VR VAR
Image Credit: Manchester Evening News

VR Could Soon Be Used By Referees To Step In Players Shoes In Football Matches

VR technology will transform the way referees oversee a football match as they will be able to put themselves into the players shoes. This is according to Dave Horrocks, a sports researcher and senior lecturer in football coaching and analytics at the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB) in Manchester, who notes that the improvements in the immersive technology and satellite tracking will see a more immersive VAR system for referees.

“In effect, it means referees will have the technology to virtually become a goalkeeper and face the corner that’s just happened on the pitch to truly see a particular incident of play from virtually any angle,” Horrocks explained talking to the Manchester Evening News.

The satellite VR system is already in use for players and is used to assess and review actions throughout training in order to improve performance on match days. By leveraging the satellite VR system, titled Mi Hiepa and a tracking system called Trac Ab, the new installment of the system would allow referees a chance to step into the players shoes and gain a better understanding of what unfold during a match.

“It will enable the referee to put himself in Neymar’s shoes and know, without any element of doubt, whether he has been kicked or fouled or not,” Horrocks said. “That means the decision he makes will not have any margin for error and will be as accurate as if he had been the player involved in the incident.”

The system is currently in development and still has a way to go but for now Horrocks is hopefully that it’s implementation will occur during the Premier League by next season or the season after.

Pizza Hut Gets AR Packaging As Part Of NFL Promotion

Earlier this week it was announced by Pizza Hut that they have become the official sponsor of the National Football League (NFL) and to mark the event, the food chain have launched a number of new programs including interactive AR packaging.

This new special edition packaging will be available in all US Pizza Hut locations during the American Football season and will allow consumers a chance to interact with it via a app for iOS or Android. Once the camera is aligned with the top of the pizza box players will be able to unlock the ‘Beanbag Blitz’ game that is a virtual variant on the game of Cornhole in which a team of two takes turns throwing beanbags through a cornhole board.

“Pizza has the power to bring sports fans together, and for years, Pizza Hut has served as a gameday centerpiece in living rooms across the country. Now, as the Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL, we’re going to celebrate football fans all season long,” said Marianne Radley, Chief Brand Officer, Pizza Hut, U.S. “We look forward to kicking off the season with our new league and team partners to deliver fans incredible in-home experiences and quality pizza each gameday.”

This new AR experience is just one of many plans that Pizza Hut have for the NFL season which will also see prize giveaways and exclusive pizza deals planned to run over the season as well.

That is all for This Week In VR Sport. For more on immersive sport news keep reading VRFocus and remember to check back next week for another This Week In VR Sport.
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Mi Hiepa Looking To Pave The Way To VR’s Future In Sports

Manchester-based virtual reality (VR) company Mi Hiepa have been working on finding the best solution for athletes to enhance their skills through VR. Beginning with football and tracking the whole movement of the foot in order to get data about players as they take part in a series of drills. Collecting data about their reaction time, their foot bias, creating benchmarks for players and creating and tracking the rehabilitation of injured players. As well as helping communications between the coach and manager. At the moment Mi Hiepa is a business to business (B2B) solution for professional players However, in this interview with VRFocus, Development Director Adam Dickinson hints at exciting future prospects.

Mi Hiepa
Players put on shin pads and shoes with VIVE trackers on them for Mi Hiepa to create player profiles.

The first thing Mi Hiepa does is create a profile for the player. Collecting the player’s shoe size and recording absolutely everything it can. Dickinson explains that it has to be accurate, and no latency is allowed. Everything the player does with their feet is recorded and tracked. Analysing a player’s skills and creating a benchmark that can push players to become better.

Mi HIepa tracker

At the moment Manchester United Academy have been using it for the past seven months. Mi Hiepa is having over 40 conversations with teams globally. Dickinson explains that when it comes to the Premier League the biggest problem they’ve had to combat is bad experiences some players have had with VR through 360 degree films. It takes time to convince them to try it on and that’s why they haven’t gone for a full suite solution. Instead players should be able to jump in and out quickly. So far reactions have been positive, with clubs surprised at when the Mi Hiepa has shown a player to perform differently during a drill.

Dickinson believes that professional elite players will most likely try and purchase it and bring their solution into their home. Noting it is not unusual to see two to three players staying behind to do extra training using it. He believes their solution gives players and clubs that extra edge, that extra one percent to make them the best based on untracked data.

Mi Hiepa covers a number of different categories.

Re-playing the Match in VR

Mi HIepa
Players can re-watch and immersive themselves in games they’ve played.

Dickinson explains that putting the coach, manager and player into VR can help with conflict management. Disagreements over what happened in a match can disappear if presented with a thorough record of what did happen and lessons learned from it, with data then used to create situation-based drills based on scenarios the players have come across. How do the opposing team take their corners? Which player is most dangerous on the pitch and who passes to them on which part of the field? These are but a couple of examples as to ways the data could be used.

All of this can be shown in VR on a standalone headset, such as the Vive Focus.

Training and scouting talent

Dickinson hopes that as VR technology develops that they’re able to democratise football scouting. A young boy who only had an hour at the Manchester United Academy was put into the drills and his data was compared to the top players on the Academy’s team and was taken onboard based on his profile. Traditional football scouting methods have a scout watch a player play four to five games. However, in those games the player may not touch the ball or have been played out of position. By putting players through the drills in Mi Hiepa, scouts might be less hesitant to reject a player if they look at the player’s profile.

Using a top player’s profile can also be used as a benchmark to train younger players. Dickinson also explains that whenever a player puts on the headset, this data can be used to help with the transfer money of a player between teams. Is that player worth the money? Can insurance companies use this data to bring premiums down at club level?

The potentials are vast, and certainly make training and drills a lot more accessible. Instead of a two million pound training centre, a team can now utilise a smaller space without the need for additional equipment just by utilising VR headsets.

Mi Hiepa
Making amateur football players do drills, will help clubs to scout for young talent.

Rehab

When an injured player uses Mi Hiepa, he really sees the benefits for players when it comes to mental health. A player might not be able to touch a ball for eight months, yet the sport is a combination of their trade. love and passion. An injury can have a massive impact on a player’s mental wellbeing.

Mi Hiepa has developed special rehabilitation methods for players to keep them mentally trained, and players can keep training without ever touching a ball. Players can keep up their sharpness and visual acuity so when the player goes back on the field they’re mentally prepared. As VR develops, Dickinson believes that these exercises will be usable across all sports in future and for all levels of consumer.

Incorporating eye-tracking and future sports

There are many future benefits for Mi Hiepa that aren’t only rehab and drills. Mi Hiepa are looking at potentially working together with Dr. Sherylle Calder, a pioneer in eye tracking and who uses it to train the eye response and reaction times of Formula One drivers. Dickinson also notes that the rehabilitation exercises athletes do for cricket or basketball for example are identical to their training scenarios.

Mi Hiepa are also looking to incorporate Tobii eye-tracking, which in turn could help coaches and teams to passively analyse and track concussions in contact sports.

It’s evident that Mi Hiepa want to revolutionise the way athletes, teams and coaches interact with one another in sports. Their data can be used for scouting, training, tracking and with the future of VR advancing consoles could potentially be able to have a mode of Mi Hiepa on them within two years.

You can find out more in the interview below.