Real Time Race have revealed that they are developing technology in which gamers would be able to participate in real sports races, in real time. Matching up the virtual circuit with the real equivalent, gamers would be able to play against sports professionals in cutting edge gaming.
Recording the race track ahead of the scheduled real race, a vehicle containing a five headed camera would take a 360 image of the course, allowing for the gaming experience to be appropriately mapped. Head of Real Time Race, Chris Leigh explained “We can put you in your own car, within real TV coverage of a real race, and in real time against the professionals. When Jenson Button nails his car from the front you can go and chase after him and try and beat him to the first corner.”
Meanwhile technical officer Roderick Kennedy explained that their technology allowed for gamers to go places on the track that the camera’s had not shot footage off. “Our data gathering system can generate an image from anywhere on the track so you can drive freely around the track,” he said, adding that GPS determined a vehicle’s location to one centimetre, whilst lasers calculated object distance.
Elsewhere FI Editor for the BBC Mark Wilkin expressed that gamers were getting more demanding in gaming level required. “They kind of get CGI (computer generated-imagery) – they’ve seen it, they’ve done it, and it’s no longer interesting. It needs to be real, it needs to look real. When you bump into Alonso, he’s not really going to go flying off the track, so how are they going to do that? That will be interesting to see.”
