Immersive Sports

When you think of virtual reality, what comes to mind? Video games probably come to mind, but one company is gearing virtual reality toward real life and basing 3D images off of them. There may be a time in the near future where we can have a virtual reality experience from live sports. California-based startup, Voke, was recently bought out by Intel and they plan on expanding what the creators at Voke have come up with.

If you’re a sports fan, chances are, you like to go to the actual sporting event to be a part of the experience. For those of us who don’t have a season pass to see our favorite team, we have to rely on television to watch the games. At this time, we have the ability to pause live television, but Voke makes it possible to pause live television and look at the whole scene in 3 dimensions. Instead of just watching a game, you could feel like you’re actually there.

This technology is a game-changer when it comes to the world of sports, but also could be used to immerse the audience at home with a tour of New York Fashion Week, or the front row of the concert Instead of spending an arm and a leg on a hotel, meals, and travel to a destination to see an event, stay in your sweatpants. The technology utilized by Yoke would take you there and give you free reign to see every last detail of the event. Worldwide, sports are a major part of most cultures, yet only a small percentage of fans get to go to an actual game.

How Voke is able to achieve 3D images is by using what’s called TrueVR, which is a stereoscopic camera with zoom capabilities that take pictures off all surrounding areas of the action. This allows the viewer to control exactly what they want to see in the program.

Intel bought out Voke seemingly to reinforce their Intel Sports Division. Intel is currently gearing toward live sports action and less to animated productions.

While the current Voke system takes 2 minutes for workers to finishing stitching each scene, but Intel seems confident that the process can be perfected within a couple years. In the near future, this new technology may give fans the ability to see it all first hand from the comfort of their own couch.