TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Smartphone E-Stadium Application Enhances Thrill of the Game

R. Colin Johnson | Date: 11-13-09 | Comments

The e-Stadium application enables sports fans to view instant replays, play-by-play statistics and more on their smartphones at college football stadiums.

The eStadium application enables sports fans to view instant replays, play-by-play statistics and more on their smartphones at college football stadiums.

If you happen to be going to the Purdue college football game against Michigan State this Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Ross-Ade Stadium in West Laffayette, Ind., or the upcoming University of Georgia at Georgia Tech game on Thanksgiving weekend at the Bobby Dodd Stadium at Grant Field in Atlanta, be sure to take along your smartphone. Both those stadiums are supporting the e-Stadium application that allows audience members with smartphones to access instant replays, player statistics, play-by-play descriptions and graphical applications such as the "drive tracker" during game-day play.

"We are now live at every football game played at both Georgia Tech and Purdue University, and we expect to have a third stadium up and running at Ohio State by next year," said professor Ed Coyle, director of the Arbutus Center for the Integration of Research and Education at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).

The e-Stadium application runs on smartphones in their Web browser. Once logged on, viewers can enhance the thrill of the game between plays by viewing instant replays, looking up statistics, viewing player bios, reading play-by-play analysis and graphically reviewing the progress of drives.

"We also add the play-by-play descriptions as labels to our videos, so you can search for, say, all the plays that were touchdowns, or all the passes or rushes or penalty plays," said Coyle.

The e-Stadium application was conceived by Coyle, an electrical engineer, and his colleagues while he was a professor at Purdue University, where they have been developing the technology. Georgia Tech debuted their e-Stadium implementation last weekend for the Wake Forest University game. Even though no prior notice was given, nevertheless, minutes after announcing the availability of e-Stadium on the JumboTron, more than 430 users had logged on.

The Georgia Tech team is planning some new features for next year, including user commentary and social networking options that allow fans to post text and find fellow fans in the stands. Also a sensor network is being installed to monitor lines at concession stands and outside restrooms. The team is also working on versions for other sports, with a prototype for Yellow Jacket basketball due to go into trial usage at Georgia Tech next spring.

With two universities up and running, and a third slated to go live next year, Coyle and associates are looking to expand their horizons further, first by bringing the other college stadiums online, then by spreading the technology into pro sports. Coyle and elements of the original development team at Purdue have launched a company called Events180 to commercialize the technology for pro sporting events.

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Texas Instruments.