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Stanford University streams in-stadium Google Glass views to scoreboard

CrowdOptic had Google Glass-wearing cheerleaders and staffers watch Stanford University sports recently and then filtered the videos, streaming them to the scoreboard and to social media for all to see.

The company's technology tracks where smart devices are aimed and then edits the various video streams, filtering out blurry, shaky or un-related footage. The process and results are a marketer's dream because they follow what consumers see and do, according to CrowdOptic.

"When someone is wearing Google Glass, from a marketer's viewpoint, this is the point to engage," said Jon. B. Fisher, co-founder and CEO of CrowdOptic, San Francisco. "People are looking at the sky, their shoes, waving their heads around while wearing the glass - how do you make sense of all this?

"Our technology filters that out, at the analytics level," he said. "With sports it is such a big [emphasis] to understand what the fans are doing.

"Marketers are honing in on what people are watching and doing."

Zooming in
Mr. Fisher started as a Google Glass Explorer trying out the technology late last summer. CrowdOptic then began integrating its technology with Google Glass, honing a program, which would capture multiple users' Google Glass videos and filter them and generate multiple views of the same actions.

CrowdOptic has been working with Stanford University for about three months, testing its technology and Google Glass. It tried out the technology at two events, a Stanford exhibition men's basketball game at Maples Pavilion on Oct. 24 and at a Stanford vs. Notre Dame football game at Stanford Stadium on Nov. 30.

A CrowdOptic video screenshot from Standford Athletics YouTube page

At both events, some cheerleaders and staffers wore the Google Glasses. Audience members could watch their Google Glass video real-time on the Stanford scoreboard and on social media.

In addition, VIPs who downloaded an application on their smartphones could point their mobile devices at Google Glass users and see - on their smartphones' screens - whatever the users also were seeing with their high-tech glasses.

Mr. Fisher and his crew could predict how some people might behave in these instances. For example, people hear a noise and look in its direction. They see something exciting and point their cameras at it and take photos.

"Think of all the different experiences you can launch with that," Mr. Fisher said. "The big idea is understanding - where the devices are aimed."

Expanding views
The CrowdOptic video of the Stanford vs. Notre Dame football game was recently posted on Stanford's YouTube site.

At present, CrowdOptic is installing its technology in a major United States sports stadium, integrating it with the structure's architecture.

The company is in talks with a major basketball and a major football team in the U.S.

Last June, CrowdOptic worked with Lancome, The Location Based Marketing Association and Cundari Group on a virtual gallery project in Toronto. In that project, only people who had downloaded an application on their smartphones and stood at a specific place could see the display (see story).

This is just the beginning of discovering how Google Glass technology can be used -- for market research, with mobile devices, for entertainment purposes and in sports events.

Mr. Fisher said the technology has multiple applications and also could be used to view music concerts and live performances.

"It's taken a lot of time to determine how to broadcast with Google Glass - it's a new technology," he said.

Final Take
Kari Jensen is staff writer on Mobile Marketer, New York