Abstract
Recent technological advancements in sports broadcasting provide an enhanced experience for broadcast viewers through visualizations, statistics, commentary, and better viewpoints. Unfortunately, on-site spectators often do not have the same access to such information. In this thesis, we introduce a novel system ARSpectator; an Augmented Reality (AR) approach that integrates event-related information into the on-site spectators' field of view. This thesis describes the overall system of ARSpectator but ultimately focuses on the research's visualization, interface and user experience aspects.
The thesis starts by describing the components of ARSpectator and their interactions. Due to limited on-site accessibility, we developed a prototyping framework that allows flexible extended reality (XR) prototyping. The framework includes the planning phase, characteristics, and components needed for the prototypes. The framework's modular design also allows for synchronization in changes across all prototypes. In total, we developed four prototypes, from on-site stadium usage to a virtual reality prototype, where development and evaluation are made possible off-site.
We then investigate the visualization aspect of ARSpectator. The main visualization technique we focused on is situated visualization — a method where we present visualizations in spatial relevance to their referents. Based on related frameworks, we developed a conceptual situated visualization framework for on-site sports spectating. Building on that, we implemented and evaluated two situated visualization methods — Situated Broadcast-styled Visualization and Situated Infographics. Both visualization methods received positive feedback during a user study that we conducted.
Experience from the development of the prototypes showed that technical factors, such as registration, latency, and jitter, impact the user experience. Based on previous work, we investigated three common technical factors — latency, registration accuracy and jitter to find out the noticeable and disruptive effects they have on user experience. We conducted an experiment in which we highlighted the importance of reducing the effects of these technical factors, as when compounded, there is a considerable disruption to the user experience.
During the development and evaluation of the visualizations, we realized that regardless of how intuitive the visualizations are, an advanced user interface is required for a good experience interacting with the visualizations. Hence, we proposed a context-aware state inference model to analyze the user context. We developed and evaluated a Manual Trigger Interface and a Context-aware Adaptive Interface with potential end-users. Although the concept of a context-aware interface is compelling to participants, our research shows that the interface would need to be well-designed to avoid distractions.
Finally, we proposed a Stadium of the Future vision that explains how ARSpectator will play a significant role. We also explore the potential of XR technology in providing an interactive experience not only on-site but also for remote spectating. We included ideas that were brainstormed but were not implemented. We then conclude with the future outlook of this research area.