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.
