On April 3rd and 4th, a demonstration experiment was conducted at Fukuoka PayPay Dome to create a new baseball viewing experience using augmented reality (AR). We caught up with you early on at the opening game in March to find out what kind of experience you can have when you combine the latest technology with watching games at the stadium.
The Hawk family Harry and Honey will greet you on the way to your seat.
First, you will experience AR navigation to the audience seats.
Immediately put on the AR glasses linked to the smartphone app and set out! As I continued on…
I found Harry in front of me ♪ I immediately high-fived Harry’s hand reflected in the AR glass.
Stingray! !
I was able to touch it successfully! !
It felt like I was able to high-five Harry…! At the moment of high-five, you can also hear sound effects, which builds anticipation. ♪
When you touch it and turn towards the arrow that appears, the path of light to the audience seats will be displayed like a tunnel. With this, even people who easily get lost should be able to reach their seats…
As I continued along the path of light, Honey was waiting for me at the corner of the passage ♡ I also high-fived Honey.
The futuristic experience of high-fiving Harry and Honey and being guided to your seats using virtual directions will keep you excited even before the game starts!
Watching the game becomes even more exciting with AR!
This time I specially watched the game in a super box. What can you experience during the match?
At the end of the 5th inning, when I was wearing my AR glasses, something suddenly happened…!
At the end of the AR glasses, wow…!
You can’t believe you can see such an impressive support performance by combining reality and virtual reality. I couldn’t help but get even more excited to support them!
There are other performances that you can experience with AR glasses…
It was a day where you could write your own message to your favorite player, cheer with a ball, and have a new experience of watching the game through AR glasses, rather than just watching the game in person!
You can also watch a video of the experience.
Identification of position and direction is realized using the latest technology.A new style of watching sports
After experiencing the AR glasses, we asked the person in charge of the demonstration experiment to explain what kind of technology was used.
SoftBank Corp. Service Planning Division Product Development Department Manager
Tetsuji Otsuka
Responsible for products for all content services such as sports, coaching, Web3, XR, etc.
Otsuka“First, to guide people to the audience seats, we use a VPS (Visual Positioning System), which detects where people are located and which direction they are facing, from images from a camera attached to AR glasses. One of the characteristics of VPS is that in situations where similar scenery is continuous, there are no major changes in the images captured by the camera, so it is not possible to determine the location or direction of the person. If it cannot be identified, it will not be possible to display a guide as to which direction to proceed, so we used a “multi-sensor” that combines BLE*.
A similar view… I’m sure the place I passed through earlier had exactly that feeling.
Otsuka“That’s right. In order to know the location of people in similar scenery, beacons installed in stadium walkways every few tens of meters send signals to smartphones at intervals of a few seconds. Once you know where people are, you can use VPS to determine their exact location and set the AR glasses to display high-fives and directions when they come in front of Harry or Honey’s panel. did”
As soon as I high-fived, a guide to the audience seats was displayed and it was very smooth! What kind of technology was used for the production during the match?
Otsuka“When trying to trigger an event on AR glasses at a specific time, such as after the bottom of the 5th inning, if you rely solely on mobile phone networks such as 4G or 5G, the event may or may not be triggered depending on the person. This may occur because in an actual match, connections between tens of thousands of people’s smartphones and the server that issues instructions for AR production will be made all at once, resulting in network congestion.
A sense of unity is extremely important when watching a game at a stadium, so we used a “multi-network” that combines 4G, 5G, and BLE to prevent the timing of events from varying depending on the audience. We have increased the certainty of event activation by sending notifications of event activation to smartphones from two networks.
In the future, “I want to support you at the stadium again!” We would like to work towards creating a smart stadium that people can feel like.
What do you think of this new style of watching baseball using AR glasses? The day when you can easily enjoy experiences like this through a variety of sports and entertainment may be coming soon.
Related press releases
(Publication date: April 8, 2024)
Text: Softbank News Editorial Department
2024-04-08 03:06:41
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