Nothing ventured nothing gained. I don't see any way this can hurt us, other than maybe in the pocketbook. I am very confident that this will help us. How much? No way to tell, except perhaps in hindsight.

If nothing else, it's something to show recruits that represents investment and interest in them as athletes. Quite a departure from the days when hot water in the locker room showers was too much to ask.

Article on the development of the product and some high praise for it.

http://www.foxsports.com/college-footbal...ing-031115

(07-29-2015 04:19 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(07-29-2015 03:26 PM)BufflOwl Wrote:  What is cool though is thinking about one day when you can play an entire game in virtual reality. Where the defense actually reacts to you just as you react to the defense. Where you can throw a ball and the receiver can catch it if its a great throw or its intercepted if its a bad throw. Now that, will change everything. Until then, I'm hoping some recruits will thing this is cool but I'm not holding my breath for tremendous improvements in QB play and certainly not any other position for that matter.

From what I have read, this is exactly what a fully installed (all the cameras in place to film practice and games from all angles, etc.) system is intended to do. It marries 3d technology to the programming found in games like John Madden Football, run on computers powerful enough to process even more variables than an Xbox. In those interactive games, the behavior of the AI controlled bots and their responses to the human avatar's actions have become sufficiently rapid and realistic to make an immersive recreation of a play sequence possible.

Kobayashi Maru anyone? You've got a front 4 of in-their-prime Reggie White, Alan Page, JJ Watt, and Lawrence Taylor coming against your college offensive line at the snap. The rest of the defense are also all-time NFL greats in their prime. (OK, not sure if Watt is an all-time great yet, but at least current players would recognize him.)

What do you do? Being Rice players, I wouldn't say hacking the system is out of the question.

(07-30-2015 08:55 AM)gsloth Wrote:  

(07-29-2015 04:19 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(07-29-2015 03:26 PM)BufflOwl Wrote:  What is cool though is thinking about one day when you can play an entire game in virtual reality. Where the defense actually reacts to you just as you react to the defense. Where you can throw a ball and the receiver can catch it if its a great throw or its intercepted if its a bad throw. Now that, will change everything. Until then, I'm hoping some recruits will thing this is cool but I'm not holding my breath for tremendous improvements in QB play and certainly not any other position for that matter.

From what I have read, this is exactly what a fully installed (all the cameras in place to film practice and games from all angles, etc.) system is intended to do. It marries 3d technology to the programming found in games like John Madden Football, run on computers powerful enough to process even more variables than an Xbox. In those interactive games, the behavior of the AI controlled bots and their responses to the human avatar's actions have become sufficiently rapid and realistic to make an immersive recreation of a play sequence possible.

Kobayashi Maru anyone? You've got a front 4 of in-their-prime Reggie White, Alan Page, JJ Watt, and Lawrence Taylor coming against your college offensive line at the snap. The rest of the defense are also all-time NFL greats in their prime. (OK, not sure if Watt is an all-time great yet, but at least current players would recognize him.)

What do you do? Being Rice players, I wouldn't say hacking the system is out of the question.

My inner geek just giggled...

(07-30-2015 08:54 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  If nothing else, it's something to show recruits that represents investment and interest in them as athletes. Quite a departure from the days when hot water in the locker room showers was too much to ask.

Amen

(07-30-2015 09:27 AM)Pan95 Wrote:  

(07-30-2015 08:55 AM)gsloth Wrote:  

(07-29-2015 04:19 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(07-29-2015 03:26 PM)BufflOwl Wrote:  What is cool though is thinking about one day when you can play an entire game in virtual reality. Where the defense actually reacts to you just as you react to the defense. Where you can throw a ball and the receiver can catch it if its a great throw or its intercepted if its a bad throw. Now that, will change everything. Until then, I'm hoping some recruits will thing this is cool but I'm not holding my breath for tremendous improvements in QB play and certainly not any other position for that matter.

From what I have read, this is exactly what a fully installed (all the cameras in place to film practice and games from all angles, etc.) system is intended to do. It marries 3d technology to the programming found in games like John Madden Football, run on computers powerful enough to process even more variables than an Xbox. In those interactive games, the behavior of the AI controlled bots and their responses to the human avatar's actions have become sufficiently rapid and realistic to make an immersive recreation of a play sequence possible.

Kobayashi Maru anyone? You've got a front 4 of in-their-prime Reggie White, Alan Page, JJ Watt, and Lawrence Taylor coming against your college offensive line at the snap. The rest of the defense are also all-time NFL greats in their prime. (OK, not sure if Watt is an all-time great yet, but at least current players would recognize him.)

What do you do? Being Rice players, I wouldn't say hacking the system is out of the question.

My inner geek just giggled...

Roflmao

(07-29-2015 03:26 PM)BufflOwl Wrote:  Very cool stuff! With that said, I'm going to side on this not being a difference maker other than maybe in recruiting. At least we're doing some things that look like it can help players get better. My one real concern with virtual reality in sports right now, is how does it help with anything at all other than reading defenses? It seems like simply a better way to watch film, and not a way to actually practice more...since you're not really doing the motions and actions that come with playing the game.

I think the system is a headset (oculus) that you could fit into a helmet.

I think it would help linebackers reading a pitch. If the QB turns his shoulder a certain way when he pitches relative to when he keeps the ball, then it would allow your LBs to get a bunch of repetitions in order to tell which way the QB may have already decided. That may or may not work in practice because the QB is making his decision based on a read by the QB, but I could see it could be helpful for the defense to identify certain situations.

(07-29-2015 03:26 PM)BufflOwl Wrote:  Success in sports is driven by skills. Skills are improved by repetition. Simply reading defenses over and over from a different advantage seems to only do so much. Certainly a benefit, but incremental improvements at best in my mind. Perhaps that is what the point above was intended to mean, that this tool will only be as good as the coaching that comes with it.

Skills and decision making. This kind of system can help skills in terms of getting repetitions, but I suspect its real benefit is in helping decision-making.

except that is is reps against YOUR qb, not the opponents.

I'm not saying it's not valuable... but I think the majority of the value during the season is for the back-ups who are often on scout team playing out of position or running other people's schemes becoming more familiar with our schemes... for players that are injured... for offseason when you're not allowed to actually practice.


Now what would make this OUTSTANDING is if we could somehow integrate it with regular game films so that we could turn regular game film and actual situations against other teams into a computer simulation.... and/or integrate it with something that included some sort of bio-feedback... where you were actually throwing a ball into a net or something, and the computer would give you feedback on where the pass went and the defenses reaction.

Jim Harbaugh and University of Michigan are using virtual reality for recruiting.

Quote:University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh is known for his unorthodox recruiting methods. Having recently made the jump back to college football from the NFL, Harbaugh has amassed four secondary violations of his recruiting for the Wolverines’ football program.

Now, Harbaugh and his Michigan football staff may be using virtual reality as a recruiting tool—a positive for them, since they cannot get a violation for it.

. . .

High school football recruits can only visit prospective colleges in their senior year, and only for a limited number of trips. The virtual reality experience will allow those recruits to see what a practice is like at Michigan without making the journey, since STRIVR uses film as the main crux of their virtual reality. Who knows, maybe Michigan will include a tour of Michigan Stadium, in addition to all of the strictly football virtual reality.

Additionally, coaches might be able to test out a player’s decision making ability and knowledge of the game, so it should be decently helpful on both sides of recruiting.

It may be STRIVR's technology, given Harbaugh's connection to Stanford. But a UM news story says, "U-M has partnered with HeadcaseVR to tell premium stories about the football program. Headcase is an industry leader that creates and produces virtual-reality experiences for a host of entertainment and sports brands."

(07-30-2015 08:54 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  If nothing else, it's something to show recruits that represents investment and interest in them as athletes. Quite a departure from the days when hot water in the locker room showers was too much to ask.

This. It shows investment and forward thinking. And young kids love technology.

(07-31-2015 12:50 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  except that is is reps against YOUR qb, not the opponents.

I thought the device could be programmed to simulate any player, any offense, any defense. Do I have this wrong, or do I have you wrong?

(08-07-2015 09:00 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(07-31-2015 12:50 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  except that is is reps against YOUR qb, not the opponents.

I thought the device could be programmed to simulate any player, any offense, any defense. Do I have this wrong, or do I have you wrong?

Based on the video on their website, I believe in order to see other offenses and defenses, you have to have video of them from a variety of angles, but I may be entirely wrong.

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/rice-fo...ty-7662567

Another story, still getting some good publicity.

If you're in Houston, Mark Berman is going to have a segment on the STRIVR system on Fox 26 news tonight. Hopefully someone can watch and post a recap.

https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/stat...80/photo/1