iPhones and the ‘augmented’ stadium
Researchers are creating software that links fans’ smartphones into a network so they can easily share messages, images and video.
The software could prove a boon for seated events when friends are not able to sit together but want to chat about the on-field action.
It could also help them include fans and friends who did not manage to get tickets to a match…
“We are not trying to take away from the quality of the football match, we are trying to augment it,” said Dr Matthew Chalmers, a reader in computer science at the University of Glasgow and principal investigator on the “smart stadium” project.
The researchers are working with the Tartan Army – fans who travel round the world following local Scottish football teams and the national side. Some Tartan Army fans have been given Apple iPhones fitted with prototypes of the software Dr Chalmers and his co-workers are developing…
For instance, he said, key members of supporter groups cannot sometimes travel to a match but want to keep up with what happens before, during and after…
The researchers also plan to use the Bluetooth short-range wireless technology built into most smartphones as a messaging system so those attending a match can keep in touch or share media.
He added that the researchers plan to release the software as a free mobile application so that anyone can use it.
Interesting they decided to drop Windows Mobile and switched to the iPhone early on.
Though it’s being developed for fans of [proper] football in the UK, I can see American sports fans – especially baseball and [American] football – enjoying the capabilities of a software and hardware combo like this. Even golf would work – fans wouldn’t have to whisper, they could text their comments.
Cripes – I’d load it onto my laptop Mac in the living room and use it to follow along a match from the Prem or the SPL. I’d love it.
