Data Central, Superbowl Edition: The Quarterback of the Future?
While it may not appear this way on the surface, some of the world’s most information-driven environments are professional sports. With each play there are countless variables that need to be accounted for – and adjusted to – in real-time.
With that in mind, you would be hard pressed to find a role in sports that needs to manage more information than an NFL quarterback. Some playbooks have as many as 700 pages or more. And, for quarterbacks, what you’ll often see is a condensed version of those offensive plays and audibles put onto a wrist band, such as the one used below by the player below:
But, what if there was a better way?
A technology HP Labs has been pioneering has been flexible electronic displays, and more specifically – the "**bleep** Tracy" watch.
While HP has stated publicly that the first prototypes are being designed to help the U.S. Military, conceptually this concept could have a major impact on how quarterbacks like Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers interact with information on the field. For a moment, imagine these are NFL pads, instead of military equipment, and this could be your next-generation NFL superstar:
Carl Taussig, Director of the Information Surfaces Lab is the lead on this incredible project. Taussig was quoted in a CNN story in 2010 about this technology, commenting that “It doesn't break. It's thin. It's potentially flexible," referring to the plastic-based design. When it comes to the possible application of the **bleep** Tracy watch in a sporting environment, Taussig comments:
“There’s no reason why a lightweight, wearable device with a flexible electronic display couldn’t be adopted by professional sports. Of course, it would have to strictly follow the league’s rules & regulations, but the potential impact this could have to dynamically deliver relevant information to a player in a more efficient manner than just a static, paper-based wristband is immense. The same way instant replay changed officiating, this could change play calling.”
While you tune in to the Superbowl this weekend, in addition to watching the score closely, it may be interesting to watch where technology could improve different aspects of the game. HP has already used technology to enhance the stadium itself – recently announcing that Cowboys Stadium (home of Superbowl XLV) has deployed HP converged infrastructure in their state-of-the-art data center. While the outcome of the game on Sunday is still unclear, what is very clear is that innovative technology is having an increasingly bigger impact in how we watch, play, operate and enjoy professional sports. At HP, that’s as exciting to us as the game itself.
