The Future of Football Game Watched Through Holography
One of the most exciting parts of the football offseason for any football fan is the DRAFT. The draft is the process where a team welcomes some of the young players to represent their team in the upcoming season. This year’s draft process was unique. They conducted the whole draft online where everyone involved in the draft was connected to each other via live video call and video stream. At this point in the year, no one knows how the actual NFL games will be held due to COVID-19. Will they play without an audience? Will they allow limited people in the stadium? Will they play all of the games outside the US? Will they even play or not? There are many questions that are hard to answer right now. Only the time can tell.
As a football fan, I was looking forward to this season as I was planning to go watch a game in the stadium. Watching a game in the stadium is a whole another level of experience. However, due to the current situation, the best option to watch a game would be from home on 4K television. Here, I am trying to imagine how the experience of watching football can be changed with the use of UbiComp technologies. Before talking about the future, let me summarize the history of Football and its reach (availability) very briefly.
History of football and Its availability over time
- The NFL started in the early 1910s but the ways to watch the game were very limited. Only the people who can afford to go to the stadium would be able to watch the game.
- Later on, the availability got expanded by broadcasting the game on the radio. But, back in the days, people did not like to listen to football games on the radio as much as listening to baseball games.
- In 1934, the game between Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears on thanksgiving was the first game to be aired on radio across the nation.
- On October 22nd, 1939, the NBC network telecasted the first-ever football game for the local audience. The game was between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Eagles. They used two cameras and about eight staffers to telecast the game. Due to the lighting issues, the quality of the picture got darker and darker along with the sunset. Eventually the picture became completely dark and they had to switch over to the radio where each play was called. It was not a great success but it certainly planted the seeds.
- Ever Since then, the telecast of the football games continued and it got bigger and better as the technology in cameras and television resolution got improved by each passing time.
- Many of us have experienced the evolution of tv resolutions. From SD, HD, UHD, BluRay, and now 4K, television got better and better by time.
- Now you don’t even need a tv to watch the game. You can watch games Anywhere, Anytime on your cell phone or iPad.
Future of watching football
I do not think that anything can replace the experience of watching a game live in the stadium with thousands of others rooting for your favorite team. But, right now, the second-best option is to watch the game on TV. Technology has been upgrading and giving us the latest and the greatest user experience. Now the only way for technology to go is forward. I think Holography is the future of enjoying a football game at home. It will still not be able to match the same excitement as watching the game in the stadium but it will be way better than watching a game on TV.
What is Holography?
Holography is a photographic technique that records the light scattered from an object and then presents it in a way that appears three-dimensional. The technology of holography has been around for many years. However, the usage of this technology has been very limited. There have been many sci-fi movies that have shown the usage of holography. In most of those movies, the main purpose of holography has always been the same, communication.
For more information on the use of Holography in communication, Read this post by Surya Ramanathan.
A 3D hologram is an object that isn’t actually “there”, but it looks like it is, either floating in mid-air or standing on a nearby surface. The success of augmented reality (AR) is opening doors for 3D holography technology. It can be used in the medical field, educational field, entertainment field, and many more. Using 3D holography to broadcast the live football game would be a future.
Here is an example of the use of 3D holography for the medical conference.
Now, imagine having a device size of a pool table that can display the holographic visuals on the surface of the device. It will present every moment happening on the football field to your pool size table but with a smaller scale. That way you can enjoy the game of football just like watching in the stadium except without a huge crowd.
It may seem that there is not much possibility of having that kind of technology in the near future. In 2010, a Japanese company announced its project of projecting all the FIFA World Cup matches onto the pitches in stadiums throughout the world. They aimed for this project to be completed by the 2022 World Cup. The $6 billion project would require the game to be filmed by 200 High-Definition 3D cameras. As the game is being played in one stadium, it will be projected at 400 other stadiums across 208 countries so the fans across the world can enjoy it. However, this project is not likely to be done by 2022.
Further down the road, there will be games directly projected to home with the use of 3D Holography and give the experience just like a stadium to all the fans of the sports.
