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| 09-30-2003 | Previous edition: 09-29-2003 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Fans enjoy e-Stadium experience
Staff Writer Drinks delivered to your seat, game updates from around the country, player statistics and more — all from your cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA). That’s what a new project called e-Stadium has in store for Boiler fans. "E-stadium, the way it exists right now, is a wireless, handheld interactive game program," explained Jay Cooperider, assistant athletics director. "We have a server in the pavilion that takes real time game statistics, static information that we have in our media guide, trivia, food locators, weather reports, real time scores and information from other games, and it’s all available on either a PDA or a smart phone." Trials were conducted at the Bowling Green and Arizona football games for fans in the pavilion, and the response was tremendous. Saturday’s Notre Dame game was the official unveiling of the project to more than 50 fans, alumni, faculty and media. As of yet, most of the access points are located in the pavilion or right outside in the club areas. The project will eventually be able to support around 6,000 users from all over Ross-Ade, but for now the coordinators are taking it one step at a time. "We don’t want to open it too fast to everybody because we’re not sure that it will scale well, so we prefer to focus on different areas and making sure it works," said Catherine Rosenberg, professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Center for Wireless Systems and Applications. While e-Stadium is a slick application for football spectators, it’s also a team endeavor, incorporating Rosenberg’s department, Purdue athletics and ITaP. "The idea is you marry up athletics, academics and the information technology infrastructure and give the fans an experience, as far as we can tell, that nobody else is doing," Cooperider said. The novelty of this program, says Rosenberg, is that it uses the concept of the University at large as a sort of "Living Laboratory" in which to test a model. "Usually we have an idea, we write papers, we build a prototype and then we forget about it," she said. "Here the Living Lab means we go one step further." The project is corporately funded by Cisco Systems Inc. and also enlists the help of both undergraduate and graduate students. "I started with two undergrads and now it’s a very large project, and we hope next year to involve computer science," said Rosenberg. The future of e-Stadium has great possibility, even beyond the athletic sphere. The vision is to incorporate instant replay options, concession delivery, audio and even security to the existing structure. Police would be involved in the system, using the wireless capabilities for quick transfer of security and emergency information. The project also hopes to expand into basketball as well. E-Stadium isn’t just for the pavilion either. "Our next big leap is to expand into the student section," Cooperider said. "We’re putting in more access points because there is a finite resource of how many connections you can have to an access point." So in theory, anyone with a PDA or Web-equipped cell phone and the URL can log on, though capacity is limited. Another concern is that fans will be taken away from the game-day experience with all the activities the program provides. Cheering can get a little difficult with a PDA in hand, which Cooperider and Rosenberg realized even in the planning stages. "It’s not to replace the experience of the game," Rosenberg said. "The students have many other ways to have fun during the game." Dick Shively, one of the users in the e-Stadium trial group, sees the project as an even greater asset to those outside the suite levels. "I think people in the pavilion have a lot of things (TVs, broadcasts, etc.) already and in the stands I see these devices getting the most use." Although use is limited, fans can check out e-Stadium next week in the game vs. Illinois at estadium.purdue.edu/estadium. Printer-friendly version |
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