Future of sports viewing? Steve Ballmer and L.A. Clippers debut new augmented reality NBA experience
The new experience, Clippers CourtVision, uses computer vision, artificial intelligence and augmented reality to analyze the action on the court and translate it into on-screen annotations and animations, displayed on screen as the game unfolds. Viewers can see the probability that a player will make a shot, for example, or watch as the play is diagrammed in real time on the basketball court.
Ballmer and the company that developed the technology, Second Spectrum, believe it could be the first step toward a radically different viewing experience for professional sports in the future. Ballmer is an investor in Second Spectrum, and has championed the technology among his fellow NBA owners.
The technology was developed by Second Spectrum, a 5-year-old startup led by artificial intelligence experts that became the “official optical tracking provider” of the NBA in 2016. The company’s software allows computers to watch live sports and track player/ball movement at a granular level. It then applies machine learning and AI to overlay a live NBA stream with data and graphics.
In “Coach Mode,” fans can watch plays drawn out on the screen as they develop. In “Player Mode,” they can see real-time advanced statistics, such as the probability of player making a given shot. In “Mascot Mode,” the system generates fun animations when a big dunk or 3-pointer happens.
The new viewing experience is available starting today to FOX Sports Prime Ticket subscribers in the Los Angeles area via the FOX Sports app.
The Clippers are also beta testing a separate CourtVision app that lets fans switch between seven camera angles throughout the arena and pick different audio feeds, such as the broadcast commentary or in-arena sound. In addition, the new platform provides a way to watch condensed game recaps and highlights, and view computer-generated video stories.
Clippers CourtVision is part of a new trend to enhance the live sports viewing experience. This is not a totally new idea — an age-old example is the virtual yellow line indicating the first-down during a football broadcast.
See the full story here: https://www.geekwire.com/2018/future-sports-viewing-steve-ballmers-l-clippers-debut-new-augmented-reality-nba-experience/