THERE is nothing like getting together to cheer on a favourite team and the adrenaline rush when a point is earned or goal is scored. Regardless of race and religion, sports unite Malaysians best and bring out our spirit of patriotism.
Football is one sport that is undoubtedly most played today and has become an important element to bring communities together as one. However, there are those who are not able to experience this excitement like everyone else, such as those who are visually impaired. To bring all Malaysians together, Digi Telecommunications has introduced a prototype to help everyone including the visuallly impared to experience the euphoria of a football match.
Called Footbraille, the solution is a touch table which syncs wirelessly to a custom software that inputs the ball’s movement, and then creates a touch-based response allowing users to “feel” the match.
Joachim Rajaram, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for Digi, explains how the innovation came about. “We are constantly looking for inspiration and new ways in which technology can help build meaningful connections. All Malaysians should be given the opportunity to benefit from the power of the Internet and technology. In this instance, we married the passion and patriotism of our nation’s athletes to one of our most iconic sporting moments that happened over 39 years ago — when Malaysia won 2-1 against South Korea in the 1980 Olympics Moscow qualifiers.
“By applying technology innovatively, we were able to be inclusive, ...to connect visually impaired communities to what matters to them, enabling them to pursue their passion for football in an immersive manner.”
He continues, saying that “It was a challenging but inspiring journey for us, especially when we saw the expressions of wonder and delight on the faces of a few blind footballers as they felt a match for the first time. It affirms our belief that our efforts to ensure no one is left behind as the world moves forward digitally are well worth it.”
TEST RUN
Digi had invited the Malaysian blind football team with coach Shalesh Rajasingam, who is better known as coach Sunny, to try out Footbraille. They “watched” the iconic 1980 Moscow Olympics football match. During the test run of the Footbraille, blind players — Azril Che Ibrahim, Mohamad Amirul Arif Mahadhi and Muhamad Azuan Abdul Rasiad — were brought to their seats.
According to Azril, they started by getting a feel of the device while listening to the instructions. As the video of the game played, the trio felt the mechanical ball moving across the touch “field” by using their fingers. At the same time, Shalesh was commentating on the game, seated not far from them. “Getting to witness the blind players’ experience, watching them cheer a goal and express frustration at a foul was an amazing moment for me,” he says.
Azril says excitedly that when the visually impaired watch a live football match, they would have someone with them to describe the details and draw on their palms to demonstrate.
“We usually respond to a goal slightly later than the rest of the spectators. But with Footbraille, the movement of the ball is synced to the game, and this enables us to ‘watch’ and cheer at the same time with others.”
For Amirul Arif, the device itself is not hard to use. He says as a football player and fan, it’s easy to understand the touch “field” and the game. “However,” he adds, “for the visually impaired who has no knowledge of football or is born blind, it will be difficult to use Footbraille.”
THE TECH BEHIND FOOTBRAILLE
Utilising the same concept of tactile feedback and live commentary, the Digi team had to manually track the position of the ball throughout the 90 minutes of the iconic match. As the picture and video resolution were not so great, they had to slowly track the ball from one point to another and make it as accurate as possible.
Digi Digital IT Head Anwar Ishak says they used an in-house built software to capture the exact ball location and feed to a tablet.
“Once the ball movements have been translated into precise X and Y coordinates, they are synced wirelessly onto the touch device that has a custom-made fabric tactile football field,” says Anwar, adding that it took four months to come up with the prototype.
Footbraille has gone through multiple design iterations. Each prototype went through multiple testings by one of the National Blind Football Athletes, who helped provide insights into what worked and what did not.
Anwar explains, “Initially the touch device was just covered with a piece of fabric with some stitchings. Azril pointed out to us that it was a bit hard to differentiate between the field zones, how the goals were scored and other indicators essential for the experience.
“We did several refinements in terms of software and hardware. For fabrics, we now use different materials to differentiate the field zones. The ball techniques were also improved on so the visually impaired can now know whether it’s a dribble or a long pass through the movements of the mechanical ball.
“All these design iterations are important to enhance the engagement of the match with the blind players, providing a clear perspective of what is happening during a match.”
So how will it work at a live football match? Anwar says cameras will be installed all around the stadium to feed the live streaming of the match into the software. The principle is the same — the ball movements are then translated and synced to Footbraille in real time.
Footbraille is scalable. Instead of one person narrating the game to one blind person, this device allows for multiple users to experience a match at the same time.
BLIND FOOTBALL INDUSTRY
Those who can see and go for courses can learn how other teams strategise their gameplay, even by watching past videos and footages. For the national blind football team, Shalesh says he usually narrates or uses “feel” experience to explain it to the players.
“Never in my dreams did I imagine something like Footbraille. This is a great tool for coaching grassroots level players to improve tactical developments.
“Footbraille can also be used for visually impaired fans when they come to support their teams. However, this solution has to be in activation for them to continuously experience the game,” says Shalesh.
Amirul Arif says the visually impaired wanted something that could describe the match to them, and he feels their prayers have been answered. He only hopes the device is more compact so that it is easier to bring to football matches. He adds that a speaker for audio and vibrations to differentiate the teams should be added for an immersive experience.
Shalesh says,”We can customise the device. To make it accessible, it has to be handheld such as a smartphone. Once at the stadium, the visually impaired can activate it and use thumbs to feel the ball movements.”
MOVING FORWARD
Digi Head of Marketing Services Bernard Lee says the company will keep on getting feedback from the national blind football team to see how Footbraille can work even better.
“Our team has discussed how to make it accessible to fans, and maybe we can work with the Football Association of Malaysia on a live match scenario. As Shalesh mentioned, Digi will also look at exploring this device for blind football training — on how it can be a practical use for the coach and players.”
Lee says this solution can also be applied to other sports using the same principle, which Digi may look into in the future.