 |
|
|
|||||
Barclays Center in Brooklyn is abuzz as the Brooklyn Netss Jalen Wilson catches the ball, readies himself, and releases a contested three. The ball arcs high above the Knicks defenders outstretched arms and swishes through the net. As the stadium erupts, Bryan Velazquez throws a fist in the air. Even though he is blind, he knows that his team just scored. He felt it on his fingertips.Velazquez, who works as an outreach coordinator at Omnium Circus, is using a new kind of haptic device that translates live game action into vibrations. Developed by Seattle-based startup OneCourt, the laptop-size device consists of a silicone relief map displaying a basketball court with the Brooklyn Nets logo at the center, and comes with hundreds of motors that vibrate to indicate the position of the ball on the court.People who are blind or low vision can lay their hands flat on the device and feel the ball move back and forth, while an earpiece provides live updates on the score and various play outcomes like shot made, shot missed, out of bounds, or foul.[Photo: BSE Global]Every major sports league tracks the position of its players and the ball in real time using advanced optical and sensor-based systems like Hawk-Eye. OneCourts technology taps into that data over 5G and translates it into trackable vibrations that move across the surface of the device.These vibrationsthink of as them as auditory pixelsvary based on the type of play unfolding on the court. When a player shoots, the corresponding location of the shot on the tablet vibrates more strongly. If the player scores, the motors underneath the hoop pulse vividly. If the player misses, the motors sigh one long, seemingly disappointed vibration. I really hope a lot of sports franchises roll this out, says Velazquez, who was invited to give tangible feedback about his time in the arena by the nonprofit organization called Visions.[Photo: BSE Global]An untapped marketHistorically, watching sports has been a visual affair. You follow athletes around a racetrack. You watch a tennis ball fly across the court. But an estimated six million Americans today live with low visiona chronic visual impairment that cannot be corrected with glasses, contacts, or medical treatments. One million Americans are legally blind. It is an untapped market, says Jorge Hernandez, senior technology manager at the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, who went blind at age 20.Hernandez, like several other blind or low-vision people interviewed for this article, usually listens to sports through the live radio broadcast, but he says haptic devices like OneCourts are one more tool in the toolbox that will make the world more accessible to people with disabilities. We are normal individuals that live a normal life, and if you make [sports] accessible to us, guess what, we will come.In the U.S., ADA standards stipulate that public accommodations like stadiums and theaters must ensure that people with disabilities receive effective communication through auxiliary aids or services like braille, sign language interpreters, and assistive listening devices.But according to Matthew Dietz, an expert on accessibility law from Nova Southeastern University, these standards can only evolve at the speed of technological innovation. If sighted people see the ball around the field or a tennis court, so should the Blind, he said in an email. But then again, I would still prefer Phil Rizzuto calling the game.[Photo: BSE Global]The tipping point of innovationOneCourt is part of a growing number of startups innovating in the space. Others include the Dublin-based Field of Vision, and the French startup Touch2See. The latter has developed a tablet featuring a tactile layout of a soccer field. A moving cursor represents the position of the ball and guides your fingers on the fielda bit like an Ouija board. The Touch2See device also vibrates to signal when players are passing, shooting, or dunking. Both Touch2See and OneCourt were inspired by a viral videopotentially the same oneof a fan at a soccer match guiding the hands of their blind friend over the cardboard model of the pitch.Many of these companies are currently competing for big contracts, suggesting a growing interest from stadiums and leagues to provide accessible experiences for their fans. The Touch2See tablet made its international debut at the Paris Olympics and has since become available at the Cagliari Calcio club in Italy, FC Porto in Portugal, and many others. The company is eyeing FIFA 2026 next. Football [soccer] is what we want to master, Touch2Sees sales director, John Brimacombe, told me in an interview last year.In the meantime, OneCourts technology is quickly gaining ground in the U.S. The startups haptic devices first became available at a Portland Trailblazers game in 2024. They have since become available at Sacramento Kings games and Phoenix Suns home games.Ticketmaster has sponsored every partnership including at Barclays. Our unique role in this partnership has helped build a model to quickly scale purposeful innovations from coast-to-coast, says Marla Ostroff, managing director at Ticketmaster North America. Its a key step toward a more inclusive future.Beond basketballThe Brooklyn Nets and the Barclays Center are the first East Coast sports team and arena to provide so-called tactile broadcasting at home games, for free. Having the ability for all different kinds of fans to experience the game is really meaningful for me, and this technology fit in with that perfectly, says Keia Cole, chief digital officer at BSE, the company that owns the Brooklyn Nets, the New York Liberty, and Barclays Center.The Nets piloted the devices at the end of the NBA season, but Cole says they are planning to bring them back next season. For now, they are only available at NBA games, but they are hoping to expand to New York Liberty games, as well. WNBA uses a different kind of tracking system that OneCourt isnt currently geared up for, but OneCourts COO, Antyush Bollini, says that the company started with the technology that is more widely available (Hawk-Eye) and ultimately plans on expanding to all levels of sport. Its only a matter of time before someday, its in Collegiate, and its in Little League games, and its in your rec center.And its not just basketball. OneCourt has already tested its haptic devices at tennis games, baseball, and American football matches. French2See works with soccer, basketball, rugby, and various Paralympic sports like goalball and wheelchair rugby. Both OneCourt and Touch2See tablets come with a peel-off, interchangeable surface that enables teams to seamlessly switch between different sports.According to OneCourts CEO, Jerred Mace, any sport that is less about style (like martial arts) and more about the athletes location (like in swimming or racing) could be a fit. We definitely have ambitions to get into every stadium across different sports, whether thats MBA, WMBA, NFL, NHL, or tennis, he says. At the end of the day, we view this as a new standard in accessibility.Mace came up with the idea for OneCourt while at the University of Washington. As a child, he experienced such far-sightedness that his doctor thought he wouldnt be able to drive. His vision ended up improving through surgeries, but the 24-year-old still remembers being judged for his looks and the goggles he had to wear. His experience, combined with a history of disability in his family, has helped him gain deep understanding for people with disabilities.Down the line, Mace wants everyone to be able to experience sportsincluding fans who want to follow a game from the comfort of their own home. Velazquez, one of the blind fans who experienced the device at the Nets game last week, told me he wouldnt necessarily use it at home. I like [the device] for the live experience, he says. But he was noticeably thrilled at the prospect of the technology being made available at more stadiums. His hand shot up when asked if he wanted to speak to a reporter, and his first impressions were summarized by a very spirited amazing!Mike Cush, chief program officer at Visions, was equally bullish. Im not easily impressed by technology, he told me after trialing the device at Barclays. But this is a game changer.
Category:
E-Commerce
When Johnson & Johnson launched the first disposable diaper in 1948, it revolutionized modern parenting. But it also, unwittingly, created an environmental disaster. Diapers are largely made of plastic, which does not biodegrade, but breaks into microplastics that pollute our waterways and end up in our food chain. And yet, more than 300,000 diapers are thrown out every minute, bound for landfills or incinerators, and accelerating climate change.[Photo: Hiro]Theres now a movement to design a more eco-friendly diaper, from creating easier-to-use cloth diapering systems to diapers that use less plastic. But Hiro, a newly launched startup, may have the most creative solution yet. It has launched a diaper that comes with a packet of plastic-eating fungi, which the company says will enable the diaper to biodegrade in the landfill.The startup is the brainchild of two serial entrepreneurs: Miki Agrawal, founder of Thinx period underwear and Tushy bidets, and Tero Isokauppila, founder of mushroom coffee brand Four Sigmatic. Agrawal has always been interested in tackling taboo issues, and when her son Hiro was born, she wanted to develop a diaper that was less harmful to the planet. Thats when she met Isokauppila, a Finnish entrepreneur who has devoted his entire career to making mushrooms more mainstream.[Photo: Hiro]A Fungi FanGrowing up, Isokauppila worked on the farm his family has tended since 1619. His work partly involved tending to mushrooms, which sparked a lifelong fascination with the plant. He went on to study fungi in college, learning about their powers as superfoods as well their ability to help other materials decompose. His knowledge of the a fungis nutrients to launch Four Sigmatic, which sells coffee that incorporates functional mushrooms.Now, Isokauppila is interested in how fungi can help us tackle the plastic crisis. Unlike other plants, mushrooms do not use photosynthesis to create energy. Instead, they need external food sources, and over the past 2.4 billion years they have existed, they have evolved to consume all kinds of materials. In the earliest days of our planets existence, they ate rocks, says Isokauppila. When trees started growing, they evolved to consume trees, helping to transform them into fossil fuels.About 15 years ago, a group of Yale undergraduates went to the Amazon and came across the first plastic-eating fungi. Plastic polymers are made of fossil fuels, and thats a material that fungi has been interacting with for billions of years, according to Isokauppila. My guess is that with so much plastic in our environment, fungi needed food, and plastic is fairly similar structurally to other materials it has consumed in the past, says Isokauppila.[Photo: Hiro]The Plastic-Eating Hiro DiaperThere are now many scientists working on how to use fungi to process the enormous quantities of plastic in our environment, which accelerates the microplastics problem. In fact, there are already some solutions being developed. German scientists are trying to incorporate them into sewage treatment plants, while researchers from China and Pakistan identified plastic-eating fungi in a landfill in Islamabad. Even furniture companies are experimenting with additives that can help their plastic pieces degrade faster. Now Hiro is trying to use a strain of plastic-eating fungi in its diaper product.[Image: Hiro]Hiro diapers themselves are fairly typical. They have the same plastic content as other premium diapers and are made in a factory in Canada that produces diapersfor other brands on the market. However, in the Hiro box, each diaper comes with a little packet of plastic-eating fungi that is dormant until it comes into contact with liquid. During changing time, you simply empty the whole pouch into the dirty diaper. This begins the process of biodegrading the plastic in the diaper. The company claims that within a year, the fungi in the diaper will completely consume the plastic.Isokauppila says that the goal is to incorporate the fungi directly into the Hiro diaper itself, to make the process more convenient. But when the company did focus groups with parents, they realized that they were very concerned about product safety, particularly since diapers make direct contact with the babys body. Over time, we hope that with education, we show that the fungi is perfectly safe, he says.Another question that comes up is whether the fungi is safe when released into the environment. Will it begin eating the plastic in trash bags or items in your environment that you dont actually want to decompose? Isokauppila says that the decomposing process is slow, taking about a year. And once it is out in the wildsuch as in the landfillit will function much like other fungi in the environment. They are already part of nature, he says.[Photo: Hiro]Making Plastic-Eating Fungi WidespreadIsokauppila believes that the Hiro diaper can be a vehicle for popularizing plastic-eating fungi. As research begins to emerge around fungi that consume plastic, we will have more scalable solutions for tackling the enormous quantity of plastic that exists on our planet. But it is possible that consumers will find these solutions scary, partly because people in Western countries are just less familiar with mushrooms and fungi than in other parts of the world.In Asian culture and in Eastern Europe, people love mushrooms and have eaten them for thousands of years, he says. But in Anglo-Saxon cultures, there has been a fear of mushrooms, which is known as mycophobia. (It isnt clear exactly why; anthropologists suggest that it is because there is more mold in England because of the rainy weather, or because the church rejected the use of psychedelic mushrooms.)Isokauppila wants to normalize the use of fungi to break down the plastics we use at home everyday. And over time, if we are able to scale the technology used in Hiro diapers, we could reverse the damage caused by our overuse of plastic.While fungi do offer a glimmer of hope in our fight against the overwhelming plastic pollution problem, scientists say our goal should still be to cut down on our use of plastic. For one thing, we still dont have a solution to breaking down plastic at scale. But theres also the fact that when fungi does break down plastic, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.Ultimately, our goal should be to avoid plastic entirely. But when thats not possiblewhich is oftenthis is the next best solution. If we can break down a diaper, we can break down anything, he says. Once weve gained enough market share, we can partner with other brands and bring this technology to the world.
Category:
E-Commerce
To make the most of its stores and keep customers coming back to shop in person, baseball hat retailer Lids announced Wednesday that 20 locations will have a newly redesigned store concept this month built for customization and personalization. Physical retail’s not dead, but to breathe new life into itnot to mention make more money from the remaining square footagebrands are rolling out more personalized in-store customer experiences. Concierge-style customer service along with customizable products have become the name of the game to counter the many headwinds physical retail has faced in recent years, including the rise of online and social media shopping, the pandemic, and inflation. Personalized experiences create upsell opportunities, strengthen customer loyalty, and, most important, draw people into those dusty physical locations. [Photo: Lids] Lids does “north of 25 million transactions” in its stores, according to Glenn Schiffman, CFO of Fanatics, the apparel, merchandise, and collectibles company that owns a majority of Lids. Lids makes up a portion of the Fanatics commerce division along with Fanatics merchandise and collaborations with other brands, sports leagues, and celebrities. Its commerce division, which includes retail, is responsible for about three-fourths of its 2024 revenue, according to data from Sportico, a sports industry trade outlet. Parent company Fanatics grew 15% in 2024. [Photo: Lids] At Lids, the new store concept has a build-a-hat kiosk where customers can personalize headwear digitally; select locations will also have curving stations where customers can curve the brim to their liking. Known for its officially licensed and branded hats and apparel, Lids says the new stores have an increased emphasis on local teams and exclusive products. Exclusive product drops have become a common model for brands and artists to generate hypeand sales. [Photo: Lids] “Customization has always been at the heart of our brand, and this new store design takes it to the next level,” Lids President Bob Durda said in a statement. “This rollout represents our commitment to a dynamic, customer-centric experience where every visit feels personal, engaging, and tailored to each individual.” [Photo: Lids] Customization at Lids gives shoppers a product that’s distinctively theirs for a premium. The store offers hat curving for $10, stitching for $12, and patches for $15. Jersey personalization, which is available in some stores, starts at $50. Sure, you could get a cheap baseball hat from Amazon, or a custom jersey through the MLB’s pricey Fanatics-run online custom shop delivered in a few days. Lids seeks to counter these offerings with a premium design built to your liking with help from a professionaland you can walk out with it the same day. Personalization also increases the likelihood of return customers. A 71% majority of consumers expect personalized interactions from companies, according to a 2021 report from consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which also states that 78% of customers are more likely to make a repeat purchase from companies that personalize their offerings. The trend toward personalized, customized retail experiences can be seen across categories, from self-service kiosks at select Pizza Hut locations to DIY AI Jibbitz for Crocs. By giving customers the opportunity to build their own custom caps, Lids is giving them a store experience worth visiting.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||