Athletes might possess the right touch to execute a perfect pass or shot. A Seattle startup’s touch is bringing blind or low-vision sports fans closer to the games they love with a device that lets them “feel” what’s happening on the field or court.
OneCourt‘s technology and hardware translates gameplay data into spatial haptics. The company’s tabletop device syncs to the television or radio broadcast of a football, basketball or baseball game, for instance, and tracks key movements and plays in the game with tactile playing-field outlines and vibrations under a user’s fingers.
Many blind or vision-impaired sports fans rely solely on audio to follow a sporting event, but that audio can often be behind the live action, and makes going to in-stadium events less appealing. Audio can also lack certain spatial details about what’s transpiring.
OneCourt’s haptics are intended to augment the audio and fill in gaps. CEO Jerred Mace said it all plays into how we form meaning from different senses.
“With touch, you’re building an understanding through the details. You’re feeling and then you’re building,” he said. “Whereas with vision, you’re seeing the big picture first and then you’re picking out details. So it’s kind of the reverse.”
Mace started OneCourt more than two years ago at the University of Washington, where he studied industrial and product design. His co-founders include three fellow Huskies: COO Antyush Bollini, CTO Andrew Buckingham, and CIO Nick Durand.
“I think my role as a designer, as an innovator is how can we bring this awesome experience to everybody?” Mace said.
OneCourt relies on data that is already being collected and distributed by professional sports teams and leagues for a variety of purposes, such as the NFL’s Amazon-powered Next Gen Stats.
“We view ourselves as a very human-centric application,” Mace said. “We’re out to improve somebody’s foundational experience with the game. And it’s cool that we can do that through data.”
OneCourt’s biggest support has been a 12-month grant through Microsoft’s AI for Accessibility program. The startup is also partnering with T-Mobile on technical support, 5G integration, and access to workspace.
OneCourt took home a $50,000 investment prize — as well as a $5,000 fan favorite prize — at the Flywheel Investment Conference in Wenatchee, Wash., last month. The startup has also competed in a number of UW competitions, such as the Dempsey Startup Competition and the Holloman Health Innovation Challenge, and it went through the Jones + Foster Accelerator Program.
The company also had its first in-venue pilot recently with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Mace and others got to go to the last three games of the season and sit with students from the Washington State School for the Blind and the Northwest Association for Blind Athletes who were using the device.
“It was a very special experience to work on this for so long and being able to watch the game with fans who finally feel a part of the action,” Mace said.
