January 21, 2019 – It has been announced today that Pizza Hut will launch a custom interactive augmented reality experience developed by UK based AR company INDE. The experience will allow NFL fans to meet and dance with players Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster of the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Super Bowl.
The large-screen AR installation will be part of the fan-centric campaign Pizza Hut introduced in the lead-up to the new season as “Official Pizza Sponsor” of the NFL. The AR experience will launch on Jan 26 at the fan zone of Super Bowl LIII, taking place in Atlanta on February 3, and will allow fans to choose the dance they would like perform with wide receivers Antonio and JuJu dancing right beside them in real time. Each participant’s dance with the duo will be automatically captured by the system, so fans can immediately share their photos and videos online.
INDE stated that the fully immersive, live AR experience is particularly unique due to the fact that the company needed to integrate 2D characters into a setting that usually operates with 3D animated characters. To do this, the players’ movements were captured in a green screen environment.
Norbert Kovacs, INDE’s CTO said: “We’re very excited about the project and eager to see the reactions from the fans. The flexibility of our BroadcastAR allows us to focus on what’s important: delivering a truly engaging experience to the fans. The generated videos and photos will give them a lasting memory of their time at the Pizza Hut activation space. This really is a perfect setting to showcase the level of engagement our product and augmented reality in general can provide.”
INDE has already developed a similar interactive AR experience for Adidas, which allowed Tango League participants to impress or disappoint Brasil and Real Madrid football star Marcelo Vieira with their football tricks, bringing him to life at multiple locations worldwide, around the kickoff of the FIFA World Cup in June-July 2018. Since the first Tango League installations the system has been deployed in multiple locations and various events worldwide.
Image credit: INDE
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.