Augmented reality is a direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment where software interacts with sensory and digital projectors to attach digital objects to the environment. The technology has already penetrated various industries and markets including healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. Contrarily, in sports augmented reality it is still in the early phase and did not have a major impact on the industry yet. In general, augmented reality in sports has the possibility to provide valuable insights for professional or non-professional players to improve their playing skills with real-time data. Especially glasses have the potential to be widespread applications of augmented reality. In the next two sections, I will give an overview of two examples of augmented reality glasses in the sports industry: The “Ghost Pacer” glasses for running and the Nike AR glasses for golfing.
Ghost Pacer Avatar
Ghost Pacer Technology
The “Ghost Pacer” augmented reality glasses project a live holographic running opponent into your field of view that paces you and pushes you to perform at your best. Research has proven that having a running partner leads to more effective and higher-quality training. Therefore, this virtual partner that is available anywhere at any time can have a positive impact on the training. The company provides a companion application where you can set the avatar at a certain pace and find routes for a run. Moreover, the app allows you to race against a friend at different times as the avatar is able to mimics his pace on the route. The AR glasses contain a small supercomputer, an ultra-bright led, and a high-resolution AR display which can also connect to an Apple Watch.
Nike AR Glasses
Nike has recently patented augmented reality glasses that have integrated a display that golf players can wear on the golf course. This display, when linked up to a connected Golf ball, is able to provide real-world statistics and data on the ball’s motion through a build-in processor. The data specifically includes the distance traveled, the trajectory, spin rate, and speed. In general, the AR glasses have an electronic screen with a transparent display area that can dynamically display images within the golf player’s field of view. The integrated technology is able to present personalized information and recommendations that let the golfer adjust strategy and approach to better suit their own playing strengths and weaknesses.
I personally would definitely like to try both versions of augmented reality glasses as I am a big sports enthusiast. For running, the ghost pacer would give me some more motivation on bad days where I am not in the mood to do sports. Although, it must feel really special to have an avatar running next to you. For golf, it would be interesting to see how they work in practice, as I never had any real-time data available after making a golf shot. What is your opinion? Do you see a general benefit in using augmented reality glasses during running, golf, or other kinds of sports sessions?
References:
Android Headlines. 2020. Nike Patents Wearable AR System To Help Golfers Improve. [online] Available at: <https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/12/nike-patents-wearable-ar-system-help-golfers-improve.html> [Accessed 30 September 2020].
Ghostpacer.com. 2020. The Ghost Pacer. [online] Available at: <https://ghostpacer.com> [Accessed 30 September 2020].
Indiegogo. 2020. Ghost Pacer: Your Holographic Workout Partner. [online] Available at: <https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ghost-pacer-your-holographic-workout-partner#/> [Accessed 30 September 2020].
Joshi, N., 2020. Revolutionizing Sports With Augmented Reality. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/10/26/revolutionizing-sports-with-augmented-reality/> [Accessed 30 September 2020].
LetsGoDigital. 2020. Nike Heads Up Display With Tracking System For Golf Ball | Letsgodigital. [online] Available at: <https://en.letsgodigital.org/smart-wearables/nike-heads-up-display/> [Accessed 30 September 2020].
Mallis, A., Nelson, J., Richards, D. and Christian, R., 2020. Channelnews : Nike Patents Augmented Reality Glasses For Golf. [online] Channelnews.com.au. Available at: <https://www.channelnews.com.au/nike-patents-augmented-reality-sunnies-for-golf/> [Accessed 30 September 2020].
Dear Jan Philipp,
I think you raise an interesting proposal for AR glasses here apart from the “regular” usage in e.g. production or design related business activities.
In general, I think that the interactive element (e.g. running against a friend) or the training effect (AR shows the way) can be something useful. Nonetheless, the question is 1) how expensive this will be in the longrun aka whether the masses can use it and 2) how the safety component is cared for.
In terms of sports, I think actually that the AR can be really advancing in precision sports as bowling / bow shooting etc.
What do you think?
Dear Jan,
Thank you for sharing! I had never heard about this and I found very interesting. I believe having the Avatar can have lots of potential, specially with the COVID-19 where meeting up with other people can be quite hard. This can also be seen as a motivation for people to go outside and run as studying at home can sometimes increase laziness. For the golf, the glasses could also raise the issue of fairness and if it it is still fair play to use them.