Sports and technology are inseparable. We understand that most of the smart gadgets entering this field are for individual athletes. But there are many other techs that help the whole team, referees, or others involved in the match. For instance, recently, the English soccer club Manchester City is going to collect data concerning its fans’ biometrics. The club has joined hands with Cisco to create a smart scarf. The latter ought to carry biosensors to “get a better understanding of the emotion at the heart of the world’s beautiful game.”
How does Manchester City’s smart scarf work?
The smart scarf comes with an EmotiBit sensor that mainly sits on a fan’s neck. However, apart from this sensor, as Manchester City officially described, it includes a PPG sensor, accelerometer, temperature sensor, and electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor. That’s not difficult to see that these are common sensors that any fitness tracker comes with. As for the latter, the EDA sensor can be found on the Fitbit Sense. This sensor measures minuscule changes in the wearer’s skin sweat in order to determine stress levels. In other words, based on this approach, it can understand your emotional state. The smart scarf of Manchester City will act in an identical way.
Many might think this smart scarf is useless because the corresponding analysts can always understand the club’s fans’ emotional state just by looking at them. But the club’s official line says it’s meant to “shape more curated, customized experiences in the future” and “serve as a study in a shared passion.” You can imagine everything under this statement. As for us, there are at least two scenarios – either the company wants to track its fans’ health status to avoid accidents or it will use data for commercial goals.
At the moment, this smart scarf is part of a limited pilot program. Thus, only select fans can wear it. However, Reuters reported that it should be “experimented” on some fans of New York City FC, the club’s sister team. If everything goes according to plans, the scarf will be available for all Manchester City fans globally starting next season.