A VR based solution for informing cycling fans

Abstract

This graduation project is an explorative project to the opportunities of the third dimension in Virtual Reality (VR) and the role that Informing Cyber Physical System (ICPS) principles can play in a service for providing more information to cycle fans who want to learn more while watching the Tour the France. The Tour de France implemented in 2015 live tracking data of every cyclist, and uses since 2017 machine learning to make predictions with this data. This amount of data makes this specific race interesting for the design of an information provisioning service for the cycling fans. This project is done in collaboration with the TU Delft Sports Engineering Institute. The TU Delft Sports Engineering Institute is an interdisciplinary research institute that researches how the performances of top-athletes can be improved. One of their research topics is ‘Sports Infrastructure and Facilities’, which includes creating an ultimate viewing experience by augmenting the spectators’ experience by giving the spectator real time information on the athlete’s performance. In six phases, this report describes the design process of the service in VR. The first phase is the orientation where the scope and context of the project and the assignment are described. Then, in the research and analysis phase, four knowledge domains are analysed, resulting in a list of requirements for the service. The Ideation and conceptualisation phase shows several ideas for functions, working the system and interactions and the VE lay-out. This resulted in three concepts of a service, of which one is selected and further detailed. Next, a digital demonstrative prototype of a few features is created using ‘Unity’ and a HTC Vive. This prototype is used in a user test to evaluate the concept and compare the learning effect to the traditional broadcasts. The result of this design project is a service design for watching the Tour de France in VR with informing elements. It is an application that can be used on a VR Head mounted Display (HMD) by the users at home. In the Virtual Environment (VE) of the application the user sees a screen for video footage, a 3D map of the route of the race and several informing elements. The usage of VR will help the users to get a better overview of the race and a better perception of depth about the routes. By providing information that is tailored to individual informational needs, this service can help the users to learn more about the sport in an interactive and entertaining manner.