philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Stanford Athletics’ Foray Into Virtual Reality Includes Storytelling Element

Stanford University’s athletic department is utilizing virtual reality across a number of sports in an effort to enhance athletic performance and engage with fans.

Most notably, Stanford’s fencing team made an interactive video that features a fencer fighting the viewer. In it, a virtual reality rig is set up facing the fencer as he or she is lunging away at you — the color changing as the viewer is hit by the saber.

Stanford’s video department uses a rig that consists of six GoPros with a specialized placement holder at the top.

The rig has also been used to produce a virtual reality video of the wrestling team in the middle of training, photo shoots of members of the women’s and men’s basketball teams — Erica McCall and Reid Travis — and the Cardinal women’s volleyball team getting hyped in a huddle before a game.

“This is a good example of the biggest problem with any VR that we’re producing or anyone else is producing — most people don’t watch it as it is intended,” Trabue said. “A very small percentage of folks are watching VR content on a headset. It’s going to be mostly on a phone or on not so good 4G. There are a lot of bad experiences with it in that sense.”

See the full story here: https://www.sporttechie.com/stanford-foray-virtual-reality/