It’s the ultimate insider’s sport fan gear. Imagine wearing your favorite player’s jersey, but clothes being tricked out to receive sensations of what the player is feeling as he’s on the field.
They’re trying it out in Australia. Foxtel and the agency CHE Proximity worked with three Australian Rules Football players — Scott Pendlebury, Luke Hodge and Trent Cotchin. The three donned sensors and “recorded” what it felt like to get tackled, to kick a ball, to score. During broadcasts, fans who wear shirts equipped with the proper technology — Bluetooth, haptic sensors — will be sent appropriate sensations in real time. See the tackle, feel the tackle.
One presumes the sensations will be a little tamped down; having a couch potato experience an actual tackle might be a little … intense.
(And yes — Wearable Experiments and Billie Whitehouse made the jerseys.)
The science fiction aspects of this are pretty obvious. Imagine an entire stadium feeling, alternately, the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat, individualized for to player whose replica jersey you’re wearing. Or everyone in Section 314 getting sent the crushing sensations of an All-Pro inside linebacker during an NFL playoff game.
One more thing: the article’s button line is apt. Think of what happens when the adult industry gets hold of this…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maHGf3LNGMs]