First and Twenty for AR

20 years ago today, in a game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals, the virtual first down line was used for the first time in an NFL broadcast. It was a feat of engineering that required precise pre-game measurements, a team of four operators and seven computers, all housed in a large broadcast trailer.

The end result was extremely simple -- a single yellow line -- but it has become a staple of the home sports viewing experience, and one of the most widely used applications of augmented reality technology ever.

Earlier this month at its iPhone launch event, Apple demonstrated a related concept using the “HomeCourt” basketball app.

The app tracks the court and player automatically, understands whether a given shot was successful or not, and records progress and training metrics (shot angle, accuracy, etc).

No team of operators, stack of computers, tractor-trailer, or complicated setup was required - just an iPhone and some clever programming.

I can’t wait to see where we will be in another 20 years!