Designing the augmented stadium

Stadium sports draw large crowds and are a key focus for sport, both in the UK and worldwide. Last year 36 million people in the UK attended at least one live sport event. Yet despite this popularity, sports spectators suffer from something of a 'viewing paradox'. While the visceral experience of seeing players, teams, and athletes is a valuable firsthand experience, this experience can be compromised by its situated, up-close nature. This proposal is based around building the augmented stadium, a new form of stadium that connects spectators with the game being watched and with those watching at home. Applying methods developed by the authors, the project combines ethnographic studies of spectating, with the design, building and trial of new prototypes systems. The ethnographic component will explore in depth the nature of sport spectating and participation, documenting a new area for technology design. Design concepts will be drawn from the studies to experiment with a role for stadiums not simply as containers of spectators, but as a new augmented environment. A central challenge for ubiquitous computing research is how to apply new systems technologies in real world settings. Accordingly, this project will act as a testbed for new computer science techniques such as MANETs (mobile ad hoc networks), epidemic algorithms, and the use of commodity hardware such as bluetooth enabled camera phones. These technologies will be applied in the form of two stadium technology concepts which will be built and tested with spectators at a host of live events, with lessons drawn back into understanding how to design technology for crowds of spectators.