Success Co. To Have 6 Degrees Of Freedom In Sports Instructional Videos
Rickie Fowler (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Success Series was introduced earlier this year as a platform where people could learn how athletes train for their sports, and PGA Tour champion Rickie Fowler teed off the first series of instructional virtual reality videos.
The platform has progressed since Fowler joined as the (so far) lone athlete, and it is implementing the technology to provide Success Series users a fully immersive experience through the six degrees of freedom that enables them while wearing a headset to move forward and backward, left and right, and up and down.
“We’re in the process — our videos are in VR, 180 and 360 (degrees) — we’re in the process of creating videos in six degrees of freedom, which is obviously a technological update of some sort,” Success Co. CEO Anthony Puntoriero told SportTechie by phone.
“And to give you some insight into that, we will be able to simulate — so we’re looking at a baseball series, a basketball series, and two others, an English Premier League player and tennis. One of its main differences is that we’re actually creating a lifelike environment where you can potentially stand on the mound getting a lesson, let’s say, from Clayton Kershaw in World Series Game 7 and then you can replicate that action.”
Puntoriero was quick to clarify that Kershaw is not, as of now, an athlete who will be featured on Success Series. However, a number of players will be joining the platform next year, with filming set to begin in early January and the videos will be uploaded to the Success Series website four to six weeks later.
With six degrees of freedom, users can learn from a baseball or soccer player while being immersed in their environment. They could also compete with your friends, applying the skills that were just taught by a professional.
“We’re in the process of creating that digital community and gamifying what we already have,” Puntoriero said.
“The current Rickie (Fowler) video is static in that it is just watching a virtual reality, but the six degrees of freedom option gives us the ability to actually engage, participate, and compete against your fellow members of the community.”
Success Series’ new videos will work with headsets like the Oculus Rift that support six degrees of freedom. Puntoriero said the 6DoF videos will be limited at first, but should be fully available by the summer.
