March 13, 2007

Turf TV

You know that future from the movies with flying cars and robots that do laundry? Well, with this latest innovation, we are another step closer.


Imagine going to a football game where you could watch replays on the field. What if the first down line and line of scrimmage could light up or change colour, or even better... What if the field could retrace and visually display the steps or path of a runner. Basically, imagine that the entire field is a giant Jumbotron! Now that's cool.

How it works is the blades of grass in the turf are mixed with blades of fibre optic lines that light up. Pretty simple huh? They could concievably display anything from a full video covering the entire playing surface like a waving flag during the anthem or TV commercials, or constantly changing sponsor logos. The possibilities are endless. It even could solve the simple issue of changing over fields for different teams (like the Giants and Jets who share a stadium) or different sports like soccer and football for example.

These obviously have great marketing implications, but as this Forbes Magazine article points out, there's more.

This technology could be used for anything from lighting up messages on someone's lawn or even something like changing the colour and camouflaging a landing strip in a battlefield, then when the time comes, lighting up lines, arrows and heck... why not... sponsor logos to guide planes in. (This landing strip brought to you by Budweiser.)

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