Система дополненной реальности FoxTrax в НХЛ

Augmented reality system
FoxTrax, also referred to as the glowing puck, is an augmented reality system that was used by Fox Sports' telecasts of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1996 to 1998. The system was intended to help television viewers visually follow a hockey puck on the ice, especially near the bottom of the rink where the traditional center ice camera was unable to see it due to the sideboards obstructing the puck's location. The system used modified hockey pucks containing shock sensors and infrared emitters, which were then read by sensors and computer systems to generate on screen graphics, such as a blue "glow" around the puck, and other enhancements such as trails to indicate the hardness and speed of shots. The system was first used during the 1996 NHL All Star Game, and was used until the end of the 1997–98 season. FoxTrax received mixed reviews from viewers and critics; although some viewers thought that FoxTrax helped them follow the game more easily, the concept was criticized (especially by Canadian critics) for being a gimmick that distracted from the game.

In 1994, Fox won a contract to broadcast NHL games in the United States. David Hill, the head of Fox Sports at the time, believed that if viewers could easily follow the puck, the game would seem less confusing to newcomers, and hence become more appealing to a broader audience. Hill pitched the idea to Rupert Murdoch, who approved the development of FoxTrax under electrical engineer Stan Honey. The FoxTrax puck was first used during the 1996 NHL All Star Game. It was last used during the first game of the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals. Fox was scheduled to televise Games 5 and 7, but the series ended in four games. In August 1998, the NHL broadcast rights went to ABC, and FoxTrax was not brought back for the final season. Fox has since used "FoxTrax" as a branding for other on screen tracking graphics in other sports properties, such as a virtual strike zone during baseball games, and statistics displays during NASCAR events. They are related to the puck in name only.

The technology was co developed with Etak; the system utilized a modified hockey puck, cut in half to embed an array of infrared emitters, a shock sensor, and an embedded circuit board and battery. The halves of the puck were then bound back together using an epoxy. The modified pucks were engineered to have the same weight and balance as an unmodified NHL puck; chief engineer Rick Cavallaro noted that players could tell if the puck was even slightly off its normal weight, as it behaved differently. While the puck passed rigorous tests by the NHL to qualify as an official puck, some players who tested the puck felt that it had more rebound. The puck emitted infrared pulses that were detected by cameras, whose shutters were synchronized to the pulses. Data from the cameras was transmitted to a production trailer nicknamed the "Puck Truck", which contained SGI workstations used to calculate the coordinates of candidate targets, and render appropriate graphics onto them. The puck was given a blue colored glow. Passes were indicated with the bluish glow plus a tail indicating its path. When the puck moved faster than 70 miles per hour, a red tail was added.

The FoxTrax system was widely criticized by hockey fans, who felt that the graphics were distracting and meant to make the broadcasts cater towards casual viewers; sportswriter Greg Wyshynski stated that FoxTrax was "cheesy enough that it looked like hockey by way of a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers production budget", and considered it "a sad commentary on what outsiders thought of both hockey and American hockey fans". Acknowledging that Canadian born journalist Peter Jennings (who was interviewed as a guest during the 1996 All Star Game that introduced the technology) stated on air that Canadians would "probably hate it", Wyshynski suggested that FoxTrax was an admission that American viewers were "too hockey stupid to follow the play" or "need to be distracted by shiny new toys in order to watch the sport." A survey commissioned by Fox itself claimed that 10 out of 10 respondents liked the new puck. In 2014, sportswriter Aaron Brown of Slate called it "one of sports broadcasting’s most ridiculed experiments." He later claimed that "most people were impressed by the technology even if they hated the effect." Building upon his work, Cavallaro co established a new company known as Sportvision in 1998, which marketed other forms of sports graphics technologies, including virtual down lines for football. however this was delayed to the 2020–21 season due to a change in technology provider.