Virtual reality gives peek inside New England Patriots鈥� locker room
Perhaps in the near future,聽football fans won鈥檛 even need to go to stadiums to immerse themselves in the game. They鈥檒l be able to strap on goggles that virtually will put them into the maelstrom on the field alongside their favorite players.
Virtual reality has already put them inside New England Patriots鈥� locker room after all. Before the December 6 game between the Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, 10,000 fans at Gillette Stadium near Boston donned Google鈥檚 VR "goggles," actually that you wear on your face,聽to immerse themselves in a Patriots training session through a 360-degree, 3-D video viewed on their phones.
The video, filmed by a Silicon Valley company that specializes in to enhance their training, took viewers into the Patriots鈥� locker room, gym and even onto the field for head-to-head training with the players.
Fans could turn their heads to look around the locker room or field to see the world through the eyes of their favorite football stars.
Though it was just a marketing promotion, the Cardboard giveaway at Gillette stadium is part of a push by companies like Google, STRIVR, and Facebook to make VR as ubiquitous as smartphones.
As it becomes more sophisticated, the technology has applications beyond gaming and sports immersion that industries from healthcare to journalism are starting to explore.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called it 鈥�,鈥� reports MIT Technology Review. The company spent $2 billion in 2013 to acquire Oculus VR, a company developing a headset called the Rift, the commercial version of which is expected to go on sale early next year.
鈥淏ecause virtual reality has the ability to put you in places in a much more real way, it has the potential to be a much better canvas,鈥� said Oculus founder Palmer Luckey to Wired.
Mr. Luckey鈥檚 background with virtual reality traces back to University of Southern California鈥檚 Institute for Creative Technologies, reports Wired, where therapists were using the technology to in an effort to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
Beyond therapy, Luckey points to implications of VR for immersive storytelling, as VR can take audiences ever deeper into a story.
A UN-commissioned film called won numerous awards this year for offering viewers a VR tour of a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. TechCrunch called the film a 鈥減owerful, immersive and deeply moving experience,鈥� and said 鈥渋t鈥檚 definitely a .鈥�
Last month the New York Times to promote its short VR documentary on children displaced by war.
And Google, reports Technology Review, is to allow teachers to take classes on 3D tours of coral reefs or Machu Picchu. 聽
