LeBron's Hairline

Inspiration

The best way to learn something is to experience it! One of the reasons why basketball is the best sport is that it involves tons of commitment and body care. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has closed all the Basketball Courts and Gyms that create and offer those valuable experiences. We aimed for creating a way for curious people everywhere to have those (sometimes once-in-a-lifetime) basketball experiences by allowing them to explore the courts from their homes in a way that was as close as possible to actually being there by using augmented reality

What it does

This allows children all around the world to experience a real-time basketball game from the safety of their own homes. It combines information cards, connecting the community and AR experiences to create a realistic and fun environment for exploring and learning about Basketball. This system will create and place virtual hoops and baskets that are just as exciting and interesting as the in-person ones.

How we built it

To create the accessibility of AR, we wanted to build a web app that allowed users to access the content that we provide without needing to download specialized software or purchase specialized hardware. In addition, we know that most of our users will likely be accessing AR via a mobile device, so responsiveness is a key design feature.

Challenges we ran into

This was our first time using AR. We faced Integration issues, Software incompatibilities, Heavy Rendering incompatibilities, browser support. But, The end result was totally worth it, and the increased realism made the experience infinitely more enjoyable

Accomplishments that we're proud of

During this hackathon, we were really concerned that we wouldn’t be able to overcome the technical limitations many of our early AR platforms shackled us to. Therefore, we’re really proud of the fact we got everything to render at a real scale, and you can interact with the model

What's next for LeBron's Hairline

Our next main objective is to scale this up. This includes adding a live game feature where the players can participate through AR and also a Google translator so that everyone across the globe can easily use the app in their native language.

Usefulness/Impact

It's only 'the end of the beginning’. COVID-19 will be with us for years. Even after the lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the virus, many social distancing restrictions will still be in place. Attendance at the playground will be severely limited. Basketball-lovers everywhere will be able to use this AR to bring the real-time experience!