XR experience at a football game

In what kind of way can a XR platform be developed to enrich the experience of football fans watching a football game? This was a very interesting question to think about, because there aren't a lot of XR platform for sports events.

In the beginning of the research phase, I wondered what type of technology would suit the best for enriching the experience of football fans. Besides that, the context of using the XR platform was important. Would the user use the platform during the game? Or would he use it at home? And would the platform be an AR experience? Or VR?

To reduce the amount of different options for the XR platform, I did research about the pros and cons of XR technology. I also looked for examples of concepts and platforms that already existed in the sports industry. Another part of my research was about the football fans. The field research I did to study their behaviour really gave me a direction to head to for the XR platform. That's why I'll tell more about the field research.

Field research

One of the first ideas that popped up in my head, was to create an AR app which could be used during a football game. The app would be used on a phone and when the camera is pointed at the players, AR technology would show some statistics about the players and the game. Since I myself am not a football fanatic, I wondered how real fans behave during a game. Therefore, I attended a match between the Finnish clubs Ilves and KuPS.

One thing that I immediately noticed, was that all the supporters were really watching the game and having a good time with friends and/or family. I haven't seen one single person on their phone. Creating an AR app that would be used during a football game would therefore be useless and would not be enriching the experience.

With the results of the research, I sketched some concepts to get my ideas on paper. This can be seen in the image below. I discussed the concepts with my tutor and after that, I developed the final concept.

Final concept

The final concept is the VR Refcam, in which the user can watch the match from the perspective of the referee in Virtual Reality. In this way, the user will get the feeling that he is on the football field himself. Besides that, he can get a close up look at all the players from his favourite club. In the image below, you can see the storyboard of the final concept.

I also thought about how the footage should be recorded. I designed a construction for the referee to wear during the football match. The construction consists of a helmet with a 360 degree camera attached to it. To prevent the user from getting motion sick, the 360 degree camera is stabilised by a special frame on the helmet. The construction can be seen in the image below.