Gigapixel lets you see yourself at sporting events

So we all probably know that sporting events attract thousands upon thousands of people. Men, women, children, old, young, you name it. The ritual usually goes something like this: fan buys a ticket or two to a football game, or has season tickets. The fan goes to the game and finds his or her seat within the venue.

Little do these fans know that they may be under close watch. That’s where Gigapixel comes into play. Gigapixel is a website where people can access full 360 degree panoramic photos and interact with them through social media. For example, this past Sunday featured an NFC East rivalry game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins.

During the game, a special camera was used to take a 360 degree photo of the entire stadium seating area and playing field. The site gives the user with the ability to tag his or herself after zooming in to the actual seat they sat in during the game. You can then find other people who tagged themselves at the game. Tags are shown with logo’s of the sports team you are seeing. For this panoramic picture, Philadelphia Eagles logos were used to designate where the tagged people were sitting. When the user hovers over an Eagles logo, the tagged person’s name will come up and an option titled “Add as Friend” will appear as well. You can then add the tagged person on Facebook.

While this concept is very ground breaking, I also think it is a reminder of the times in a negative way. We are so focused on letting the world (who supposedly care about our every movement) know where we sat at an Eagles game that we may not even see the next touchdown happen right before our very eyes. Not only is it negative in that sense, but if I was at a major sporting event with 68,000 other people, I wouldn’t want some stranger on the other side of the field to know where my exact location is. Remember, you can clearly see what peoples faces look like when zooming in far enough.

You may think I’m just spazzing about nothing out of the ordinary, but the fact of the matter is that our own identities can be accessed with a simple mouse click. The scarier part is that you can add the tagged people on Facebook and gain even more information about these people.

It doesn’t all have to be that bad though. This feature can also bring friends together who may have coincidentally had tickets to the same game. The fun of this feature is in seeing everyone’s facial expressions during what might be a huge play or a touchdown.

The main point here is that technology can be overwhelmingly influential on how we do fun things like go to sporting events. There are pros and cons to every advancement in technology and users should be aware of both the positives and negatives.

from http://gigapixel.panoramas.com/eagles/20140921/

Jonathan Weisman is a student at Monmouth University, where he studies both marketing and public relations. He is interested in most sports played around the world on both professional and non-professional levels. Weisman currently works for Aramark as a Marketing Intern and looks to pursue a career in either the marketing or PR fields.