It's been a fun day of watching the Superbowl. The technology applied to telecasting games over the last few years has really improved the viewing experience.

There is an overhead camera that gives the viewer a 3rd person video game style perspective. There is also the clever use of chroma colors to superimpose a yellow first down line on the field. Most football fans I have spoken with think of the chroma first down line as an indispensable feature after just a few years. It makes the game so much more dramatic as you see the players fighting to reach or defend the yellow line.

Another new Internet technology is the GameCast. This is an application that converts live game summaries to a visual display of the action. For example in baseball, a live representation of a diamond is shown. Instead of simply reading a game summary feed, a graphical display of the game action is presented on the GameCast diamond. It is not a very engrossing way to watch a baseball game, but it is better than a simple text feed. A key benefit is that it allows for viewer interaction, particularly with statistics. For example, the viewer may want to look up statistics about the pitcher for a specific situation. These types of stats can be quickly accessed through hyperlinks and predefined searches. This is a real asset for the devoted sports fan and it is a features that is not possible when watching sports on TV.

The next step in sports viewing technology is in the works. A cricket site called Cricinfo
is experimenting with broadcasting 3D animated versions of cricket matches. The description of the service is limited, but I am guessing it will be like a GameCast in that it will use game summaries to select pre-rendered 3D clips. For example, when the ball is bowled and hit to a specific fielder, the system will show a generic animation of that event. The precise spin of the ball, the running path of the fielder, the speed of the runners, etc. will not mirror the actual events - they will only be a high level representation of the real life play.

Using precanned animations will be a more engrossing experience than the GameCast and it also will take us one step closer to the next big thing: live 3D sports where the nuances and details of the game are presented to the viewer. While the development of a live 3D system is not trivial, the technology required to broadcast sports in 3D is already available. Were the players and ball equipped with wireless motion tracking devices and linked to 3D models like those seen in sports video games, the viewing experience could become very compelling and interactive. I can foresee a day when viewers could zoom in on the action or watch a play happen from a player's first person perspective. People could even watch from the ball's perspective. The ability to pause the action and access any statistic will bring fans even further into the game. This will be an exciting experience, indeed.

Labels: 3D, sports, user experience