Interacting with Athletes in Real — Time Through Augmented Reality

Jared McCann the newest Seattle Kraken left winger is vigorously skating across the ice. Stride after stride chasing down the defender past the blue line who wants to clear the puck.

As I see him race down the ice, I’m thinking, how fast is he skating? what’s his total time on ice? is he going to reach the defender before the puck is cleared?

I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone, log in to the Seattle Kraken app and point my phone at Jared. My phone uses computer vision, a blend of ai + computer science, to identify Jared and feeds me the real time statistics of his game. I can see he’s skating at 15 MPH, has been on the ice for 1:23 and is due for a line change. I put my phone back + enjoy the next phase of the game.

While this fan interaction isn’t currently enabled, wouldn’t it be incredible to see real-time data at will? Or have access to other interesting numbers like the fatigue level of players? Augmented Reality enables a dynamic future that disrupts how fans currently experience the game.

But first, we need to understand how the technology works and why the fan experience is limited.

In this article, you’ll learn about:

• Intro to Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence
• Enhancing the digital fan experience of the Seattle Kraken
• Personal Project and Intention Log